Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie
by Chuckman
Summary: In 1947, the hammer of Thor landed in the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion, bringing with it the terror and splendor of another universe. Continued in The Crisis of Infinite Shinjis. See Age of Marvels for a revisitation of the Marvel/Eva fusion concept.
1. Along came a Spider

**Disclaimer**

The following work of fiction incorporates elements from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Marvel Comics. The list of creators whose works I'll be drawing on is too extensive to list here; I'll add it at the end of the story. I claim no ownership over any of this and will remove it at the request of the copyright owners.

* * *

><p>Greetings, human of Earth. I am Uatu, the Watcher.<p>

Below us is a world you know, a broken world of broken people, the world of the Evangelions. It is a world without hope, where great power is exercised without great responsibility. We know the outcome of the story, where young Shinji Ikari's path inevitably leads. We know how this tormented world came to be this way.

We gaze on an Earth in torment, wounded. Her seas are as blood, and her lands have been swept clean. In the whole of this world there is a single inhabitant, a lone boy driven to madness by the horror of his experiences. In time, another will emerge from the crimson sea, a girl as wounded as he, as broken as she is beautiful. Their story is done. There is nothing here for us to watch.

We turn now to the world next door, where a tiny piece of another universe has fallen, and carried with it incredible changes. The world we remember needed heroes but found only flawed, ordinary men and women, boys and girls, fighting against impossible odds to recover a thin sliver of hope, the tiniest glimmer of possibility, on a desolate beach.

Yet, we wonder. Could things have been different?

What if_?_

* * *

><p>Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie<p>

1947

Outside Roswell, New Mexico

Thunder rippled across the night sky the night before Mac and Jesse found the thing. He was used to storms this time of year, and didn't think much of it, until he heard the sound. It started out as a low whine that gathered itself up into a kind of rumble. Mac sat up in the twilight and looked out the windows, terrified he'd see a funnel cloud bearing down on their little ranch house, but there was nothing. The sound grew louder and louder until he put his hands up to his ears, and then finally broke in a rippling boom that rolled through the house, shaking streamers of dust from the rafters. Plates clattered to the floor in the kitchen.

His wife sat up beside him. "What was that?"

"I dunno," he said. "Something came down out in the pasture. I'll take the truck and check it out in the morning."

That night, he slept fitfully. He woke in the darkness, dreams on the edge of his mind, distant shapes, giants in the mist. He felt a curious tugging, the way he had when he was in a younger man, in the days before the war, like something had changed, something momentous was building up. When dawn came he was no longer able to force his eyes shut, and so gathered up the boy, Jesse, and his beat up old farm truck and in the piercing morning sun, headed to pasture.

There was no sign of the storm from the night before. The ground was dry, even. The only mark of its passing was the great crater in the pasture, a rent in the sea of brown grass, as if God had reached down with a finger and marked his territory. Leading up to the crater was a streak of debris, pieces of metal and strips of cloth that clung to the brush. He pulled to a stop short of the debris field, and killed the motor. The big truck burbled into silence and the boy joined him, stooping down to pick something up from the ground.

It was a helmet, or maybe the nose cone from some kind of rocket. There were funny letters written all around the edge- odd, angular figures, some of them a little familiar, most not. At some point, something had been attached to it- the roots of something like horns maybe, broken off the front. Mac took the object and turned it over in his hands, surprised at its lightness; it felt like foil, almost. He took a hold of the edges and tried to bend it, but it wouldn't budge. Gently, he set it down.

"Wait here," he told the boy.

Squinting as he looked up, Jesse nodded.

He made his way carefully down towards the crater, watching out not to step on anything. The rift in the earth was twenty feet wide, maybe three times that length, and deepened to about ten, maybe fifteen feet in the far end, where something rested. Carefully, he scrabbled down the long slope, his old boots sliding in the fresh earth. There, he found the object. It was about two thirds as long as his arm, most of that a long handle wrapped in leather that looped at the bottom to make a kind of lanyard. At the opposite end was a block of stone about a foot across, and maybe half again as tall. When he touched it, it felt cool and supremely smooth, like metal, and a sensation like a low-level static charge swept up his arm.

He tried picking it up. It didn't move. At all. He put his other hand on it, planted his foot, and pulled. He succeeded only in falling on his ass. He glanced over his shoulder, glad that Jesse didn't see him making a fool of himself. He got up and crouched over the object, and brushed off the top part of the 'stone'. He traced his fingers along an inscription in the material, so finely etched that it was barely visible. He rested his hand on the grip and the inscription darkened, clearer now.

He furrowed his brows as he read.

He stood bolt upright, turned, and ran up the slope, his legs burning as he neared the top. He came to a halt, panting, and rested his hands on his knees.

"Pa? What happened?"

"We've got to call the Sheriff, and the army base. There's somethin' down there."

"What is it?"

"I ain't sure, but it don't belong here."

_Six Months Later_

When he learned of the miraculous discovery of the completed apocrypha of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Lorenz Kihl had anticipated leading their translation and interpretation under the auspices of the Order of Souls. He had not anticipated being rudely interrupted by some foolishness in America, nor spending thirty six cramped and restless hours transferring from cramped aeroplane to cramped aeroplane, a thoroughly uncomfortable staff car and finally some unworthy contraption known as a "Jeep" that presently bumbled and bumped its way across some god forsaken patch of scrub and debris that dared name itself a pasture.

Dressed in a thin summer suit and open shirt, he nevertheless began to forgive the Americans their utter lack of style; this heat was simply interminable. He clutched his walking stick to his chest with one hand and held onto the frame of the infernal apparatus for dear life until it finally stopped at the edge of a long perimeter of sawhorses manned by bored looking GIs in hilariously out of place drab green uniforms.

The strapping young infantryman that had driven him unloaded his valise and set it in the damnable dust outside the perimeter. Keel picked it up and curtly nodded to the boy, who saluted. These ridiculous creatures apparently reverted to a predetermined gesture whenever they became confused. It was nearly endearing. He ignored the little twerp and headed for the barricade. Another interchangeable green-and-dust soldier stopped him and he foisted over a sheaf of papers without speaking. The bureaucratic gibberish apparently in order, they were returned to him and the sawhorse nearest him moved aside that he might pass through.

He found a bustling compound dominated by a central, massive canvas tent that flapped in the wind, pulsing out a staccato beat. He held his hat to his head and nearly dropped his stick until one of the useless Army creatures took his valise. A tall, thin American with a moustache and a decidedly unmilitary bearing appeared beside him, extending a hand in the absurd local custom of pressing flesh. Keel took it with what he hoped was concealed disdain, and offered the most minimal shake he could.

"Doctor Keel?"

"Ja," Keel said, deciding to play up the German scientist stereotype.

"You're one of the first to arrive," the man said. "Forgive me. Howard Stark, of Stark Enterprises."

"The arms manufacturer," Keel said, maintaining the illusion that he was some sort of pacifist. He put a measured amount of disdain into the words.

Stark didn't seem to concern himself with Keel's opinion. He was a spare man of indeterminate years, who bore a curious resemblance to Walt Disney, of all people. He smiled amiably. "We're very pleased to have you here, Herr Professor."

Keel smiled thinly. An interesting game. "I fail to see what a theologian offers to your research."

Stark gestured at the tent. "Know what's in there?"

Keel looked at the expanse of billowing canvas. "The newspapers call it a 'flying disk', I believe."

Stark laughed. "Something like that. Why don't you come along, and I'll show you."

Unamused, Keel kept an eye on the buffoon carrying his luggage, who carried it into one of the nearby tents. Stark held open a flap for Keel, exposing the interior of the main structure. As he stepped inside, he noticed that it was mercifully cool in the shade. The ground had been leveled and stripped of vegetation. At the far end of the tent was a small object lodged in the ground. The earth around it had been excavated away, leaving it on a platform of dirt about three feet in height.

"We found a variety of artifacts," Stark said as they walked. "All of unknown origin, inconsistent with any sort of device. Several were inscribed with runes."

"You mean, some form of alien writing?"

"No, I mean _runes_."

Keel slowed his pace. "What? Did someone dump a museum in the desert?"

Stark shook his head. "If they did, they lost one hell of a main exhibit. Here it is."

"It's a hammer," Keel said incredulously. "You people disrupted my vital research for _this_?"

"It's more than a hammer. We can't move it."

"I don't understand."

Stark thrust his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "We tried manpower, a truck, even construction equipment. It snapped a chain with links the size of my head, and it didn't budge. We're getting ready to see if we can move it by digging out from underneath of it, but we want the rest of the team to have a look at it first."

"Team?"

"By the way," said Stark. "I'm recruiting you. We're putting a team together to analyze the find."

Keel walked around the object, running his fingers over the surface. "There is an inscription."

"Touch the handle."

Keel moved around and set a hand on the long, leather-wrapped handle. When he did, lines darkened on the side of the object, becoming clearer. His eyes widened.

"Can you translate it?"

"Translate it? It's in German. _Modern_ German, Mister Stark. Is this a joke?"

"Funny," said Stark. "When I see it, I see English. The rancher who found it can't say quite what he sees, just what it says. He can't read."

Keel looked at him, incredulous. "Ridiculous."

"Watch," said Stark. As Keel released his grip, Stark took hold of it, and the lines shifted, gradually reforming into English.

"If you would, doctor," said Stark. "I want to confirm it still says the same thing."

Keel put his hand back, and watched the words shift back into German.

"Whosoever lifts this hammer," he read, "if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

* * *

><p>Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie<p>

Chapter 1: Along Came a Spider

* * *

><p>Present Day<p>

Tokyo-3, Japan

Hikari Horaki was a tad upset. There was a transfer arriving, and on top of that, she had to deal with the oncoming chaos of a field trip to the main science center at Nerv headquarters. It wasn't in the Geofront proper, you see, rather, it was what everyone in the company town derided as a cheap show for the tourists- nevertheless, it was a real opportunity to see science in action, and an escape from the droning teacher's endless lectures about Second Impact that were only vaguely related to the supposed topic of their instruction.

The new boy was slight, a little short, and painfully shy. He barely spoke to her when he entered the classroom, folder tucked under one arm. Her class had its share of problem children, that was for sure. There was the Ayanami girl, with her bizarre bluish hair, chalk white skin and red eyes, who was by far the strangest. There was also Toji Suzahara, who somehow got away with wearing a track suit every day, and his friend Aida, who filmed everything for no readily apparent reason.

When Toji walked into the room she momentarily forgot about the transfer. Toji, of course, walked right past her without paying her any mind at all, and it took the frightened new boy tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention back on him. She exchanged pleasantries with him, noted that he looked a little sad, and escorted him to his seat, warning him to stow as many of his effects as he could, since they were about to leave. After the Stand-Bow-Sit routine, Hikari started gathering up her flock to proceed to the exhibition. She and the other class reps, along with a few of the more spry teachers, would be leading them.

She felt sorry for the old teacher as she walked out of the room, the last in line. He looked a little lost, as if he was about to start lecturing the desks about the Impact Wars. She checked off each name on her clipboard, sighing a bit as she slowly marked next to Suzahara.

The trip into town was uneventful. She was never sure why the high school had been built outside the city, but at least they didn't have to walk. A car on the elevated line had been reserved for them, and she sat down at one end, relieved for the first time in a while that she didn't have to worry about being groped. She didn't really worry about it anyway- her sisters joked that there was nothing _to_ grope. She sort of hated being Class Rep, sometimes. No one really talked to her unless it was to complain about something, and she had a hard time starting a conversation if it wasn't something official.

At length, they arrived. The science center had a banner welcoming the students of Tokyo-3 Junior High. It was a large and thoroughly modern building, dominated by a central glass dome. The lobby was set up to highlight some of the ecosystems lost in Second Impact. There was a large aquarium filled with rare species of tropical fish rescued from the poisoning of the seas, a terrarium set up to mimic the lost Sahara desert, and one that was curiously empty, covered over in white cloth. Under the dropcloth she could see bits of leaf peeking through, pressed up against the glass, some kind of jungle scene.

She checked off her classmates and fell into the back of the line. An extremely bored looking woman with obviously dyed blonde hair appeared, clad in a labcoat and a rather scandalously cut, at least to Hikari, black dress. She felt a subtle wave of resentment as the girls pricked up at her appearance, matched by a sudden intent interest in the sciences on the part of her male classmates. She sighed a little; Toji was staring most openly. The only one not staring at the blonde was the new boy, Ikari. He shifted and looked away from her when she looked at him.

"I am Ritsuko Akagi, PhD, MD, and several other letters," the woman said, boredom ringing in her voice. "I have the very great pleasure of…" she sucked in a breath, "Giving you fine young boys and girls a tour of Nerv's Science Center. This way, please."

She turned and had absolutely no trouble bringing the boys along with her as she walked through the set of double doors at the front of the lobby. The main room of the facility was dominated by a series of open air labs cordoned off from the floor by velvet rope. Scientists were busily moving about in each one, probably simulating experiments. Hikari was under no illusion that any of this was real, but it was interesting. The first group was working on some sort of experiment involving taking pipettes of material from small containers and mixing them with blood.

"Genetic engineering," Akagi started to drone, still sounding bored. "at the forefront of genetic science, Nerv is exploring avenues of research that will blah blah blah…"

She didn't actually say blah blah blah, of course, but she may as well have for all the interest Hikari had in what she was saying. She scanned the room. Aida was intently filming her, working the focus and zoom on his camera, no doubt trying to find a good angle to capture her cleavage. Toji looked bored, leaning against one of the support columns that held up the great glass dome over their heads. She felt a shiver run up her leg when she looked at him.

Then she realized something was actually running up her leg.

She looked down at let out a strangled gasp. A spider, a good inch across, was sitting on her bare knee. It was big and ugly, and had a black body with yellow stripes. It lifted its front pair of shiny, plasticky-looking legs and waved them at her in arachnidly annoyance, and she involuntarily stiffened.

It sank its fangs into her.

She yelped and jumped, and felt the eyes of everyone in the room on her. She looked around in terror. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "There was a spider, it-"

"Do you mind?" Akagi interrupted her. "As I was saying, human evolution is…"

She looked down. The loathesome little thing was gone, and in its place was a rising, angry looking welt on her knee. She took a step and it hurt a little, but not too bad. She adjusted the skirt of her jumper to cover it as best she could and followed the rest of the class as she moved on.

"M-miss Horaki?" the transfer said, appearing beside her. "Are you okay?"

"I guess," she sighed. Toji hadn't even noticed her distress. Typical. She looked at the new kid.

He was kneeling down in front of her.

"What are you… doing…"

He held a hand over the welt on her knee and furrowed his brows in concentration. The welt sank a little, the redness fading, until he drew his hand away and stood up. He looked around, panic evident on his face.

"I shouldn't have done that," he said. "I'm sorry."

She took another step. Her knee felt fine. There was still a bite mark, but it wasn't so bad now. She did feel a strange heat working its way up and down her leg from the point of the bite, but it was a mild discomfort compared to the stinging she'd felt before.

"How did you do that?"

"I can't talk about it," he said quickly, and sank back into the crowd.

The rest of the trip was fairly pleasant, if thankfully unremarkable. There were half a dozen stations, all of which consisted of men in lab coats who may not even have been actual scientists standing around doing sciency things while Doctor Akagi blathered on about something vague that didn't explain very much at all of what Nerv actually _does_. Hikari didn't mind, since it beat listening to the Lecture Without End.

She giggled. Lecture Without End. That was pretty funny. She'd have to remember that.

The trip back was uneventful, too. The Ikari boy avoided her, and when she looked for him, Ayanami took a sudden interest in her, watching with those red eyes of her. Hikari shied away and hid in the back of the train car, watching the world go by as they headed back to the school. She looked around and decided she'd had enough. She was going to ask Toji to eat lunch with her tomorrow, and that was that.

The return to the school was orderly. She may not have especially enjoyed her job, but she was very, very good at it. She waited patiently for the ending bell and then rushed to Toji as he was leaving with Aida, who continued to film. She stood in the doorway with her clipboard over her chest, moving from side to side as he tried to duck out.

"Cool trip, huh?" she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady. "Beats the Lecture Without End, right?"

He stared at her blankly. "Can I go home, now?"

She shrank a little and sighed, then stepped out of his way. "Bye," she said softly. He didn't reply.

She noticed the transfer walking with Ayanami and sighed. She decided she'd had enough of the train and headed home on foot, walking by the side of the road, swinging her school bag idly around her as she walked. She almost didn't see the car, except, well, something was wrong.

There was a sudden, intense tingling, coupled with a strange sensation, like something wisping across the hairs on the back of her neck. She dropped the bag and jumped before she even heard the sound of the car, a big black sedan that rolled under her as she thrust her body skyward. The rooftops around here slid to a stop and paused for a moment before she fell back down. She landed, and abruptly fell right on her rear end.

She sat on the road for a minute, blinking. Did the actually happen?

He let out a little yelp when she realized her bag had been run over. Books, papers, and the bent up remains of her clipboard littered the street. She did the best she could to gather them up, pulling them to her chest in a rough pile, and hurried home. She bounded up the three short steps to the little house she shared with her father and sisters, and stepped inside. Thankfully, it was Kodama, her older sister, who was tasked with cooking dinner tonight.

"I'm home," she said sullenly as she kicked off her shoes.

"Welcome home!" Kodama called back. "I've got dinner in the oven. Dad's going to be late."

"Whatever," Hikari said back, probably not loud enough to be heard, and then louder, "I'm taking a nap. I had a long day."

"Fine," he sister called back.

She darted into her small bedroom and closed the door. She dumped the pile of junk into the corner and without changing, flopped onto her unmade futon and let out a long breath. She looked down at her leg. The welt had shrunken down, and was now a mere yellowy discoloration, like an old bruise, with two white livid marks in the center where the nasty little creature had bit her. She let out a long breath, fluffed her pillow under her head, and let herself drift off to sleep. She had to do what she could to salvage her homework, and it would take time. If she freshened up now, she could stay up later to finish it.

Sleep took her surprisingly quickly. The next thing she knew, she smelled instant food and heard her sister calling her name. Her palms itched like crazy, and she noticed a slight redness at the base of either hand when she sat up. Confused, she scratched at her right hand a little. She flexed her arms and realized she felt a little sore, and blinked in confusion. She stood up and snapped on her light. It was later than she thought. Her arms were a little bigger than she remembered, a hint of veins running between almost-clearly defined muscles. She stared at herself and then stood in front of her small mirror and flexed her arms, surprised to find a slight but larger than she expected bulge on each of her upper arms. Swallowing hard, she shrugged out of her jumper and unbuttoned the bottom of her dress shirt.

It was like discovering a lost city of gold. The holy grail. The white whale. The lost ark. The fate of Atlantis. She stared at herself, her jaw falling open in utter shock.

"I have _abs_," she whispered.

* * *

><p>Redding, California<p>

"Miss Mari."

Mari rolled over and thrust her pillow over her head. "Not now, Jarvis!"

Jarvis warbled a synthesized sigh and extended a metallic feeler to poke her shoulder. "I am afraid I must insist you wake up, Miss Mari."

She sighed and rolled onto her back. The auto-darkening windows suddenly went active, flooding her bedroom with rich, overly bright California sunlight. Jarvis hovered over her apologetically. The floating white pod with the big blue eye that hung in the air over her bed wasn't _actually_ Jarvis, of course. The massive mainframe was actually under the lowest level of the house, but "he" interacted with her, her father and their guests through the house itself and a small number of pods like this one, all smooth, white, and slick looking. Dad said they were designed for him by some guy out in Cupterino.

She was already awake, but felt like playing the game anyway. "It's summer. I don't _want_ to get up," she yawned, arching her back against the bed to stretch.

"And yet you must," said Jarvis. "You father wishes to see you. He says it is important."

She blinked at the harsh morning light and covered her eyes over with her hands. "It's always important. Did he get in a fight with Dummy again?"

"No," Jarvis said drolly. "Something about a suit of armor for a certain someone, I believe."

She sat bolt upright and stared into Jarvis' single eye. "Are you _serious?"_

She pushed the hovering orb away and hurriedly rolled out of bed, wincing at the cold floor under her bare feet. She tugged on a pair of jeans that lay discarded on the floor from the night before, threw on an oversized t-shirt, slipped on her glasses, and then rushed down the winding central staircase to the ground floor of the house. The structure was sweeping and modern, all curves with no angles, mostly whites and Earth tones. It had been that way as long as she could remember- her mother had designed every aspect of the house' layout, and Dad had never changed it.

The entrance to the workshop wasn't hidden. It looked like a simple utility closet, and opened onto a set of concrete stairs. She bounded down to the bottom, where a partition that looked like glass but wasn't separated her from the space where her father spent most of his waking hours. She had only to touch her hand to the glass, and an illusory holographic control panel flashed into life around it, outlining her palm print as it scanned her in. With a hiss, the door, a perfectly cut piece of not-glass that blended into the panel when it was closed, popped inwards. She pushed it the rest of the way and went in.

The shop floor smelled of oil, rubber, and what her father called "the magic blue smoke" that erupted whenever something he built caught on fire. It was vast, as big as the house itself, which essentially rested on concrete pillars spread out through the lab at regular intervals. She didn't spend much time down here. When she was younger, it was too dangerous, and Dad spent long hours either working on the suits or out on missions.

The room was dominated by the design center, where he sat in the middle of a half dozen huge screens, some of them made out of a curious, transparent material. The monitors were a terrible redundance- he could slip on a pair of gloves any time he wished, and the entire room would become a massive holographic display tied to the mainframe and Jarvis; in a way, Jarvis wasn't _in _the house, he _was_ the house. There were only two places in the lab that were truly clean- the eight alcoves on the far wall where the Mark I-VII and Rescue suits stood, illuminated by LEDs, progressing from the crude, hand-build escape suit to the most advanced ones, the sleek Seven and Rescue suits.

The other clean place was where he kept Mom's stuff.

Anthony Stark, jr was a man of middle years and unassuming height but profound presence, a sort of wry-half smirk his default expression. He sometimes got creative with his facial hair, but today favored a simple goatee. His coal black hair was thinning a little and his tan was clearly artificial; he didn't get out in the sun much, these days. He looked up from his work through a pair of absurd goggles that were no doubt part of some gadget he was working on, and smiled at her. With a soft grunt he took the brakes off his wheelchair and rolled around to greet her. She frowned a little every time she saw him in it. He could still walk in one of the suits, of course, but it was painful and uncomfortable, and he wore it less and less, now. The Mark VIII was actually fairly outdated.

"Mornin', gorgeous. I ever tell you how much you look like your mom?"

"All the time," she rolled her eyes. "Jarvis said something about a suit?"

He sighed. "Jarvis!"

"Yes, sir," the house boomed.

"I didn't tell you to say anything about that, did I?"

"You did not instruct me not to, sir. I believe your exact words were to wake Miss Mari and conduct her here 'by any means necessary'."

He sighed and rolled back around to his station. "That's what I get for designing an AI with a sense of humor. Come here."

As she walked around to join him at his computers, the lights in the lab dimmed, and the sharpness of the screens increased. A series of schematics appeared on the screen- it amazed her how complex the suits were, how many thousands of parts made up one arm, for example. He flicked through the layers and layers of schematics until they shifted and combined into a single form- a wireframe mockup of a powered suit of armored, fitted to her.

"It's an update of the design I used for your mother's suit," he said, gesturing to the screen. "I made a few modifications, upgrades, things I would have put into the Mark VIII if I'd ever gotten around to it. Folds up into a crate, like the Mark IV."

She stopped him before he started going into all the technical details.

"Can it fly?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "No, it makes toast. Of course it can fly."

"Really?" she clapped her hands in excitement.

"I hope you're ready for this," he deadpanned. "I'm still mad about the Aston Martin."

"You have, like, five Aston Martins," she said as she crossed her arms in defiance.

"I liked that one. I should have sent you to a boarding school or something. It's what I get for raising the spoiled child of a billionaire. You should have had a deprived childhood, like mine, walking to school in the snow. Uphill. Both ways."

She smirked. "You're the son of a billionaire."

"Millionaire. We didn't break into the billions until I started working on the energy crisis and world hunger."

She huffed. "A hundred-millionaire is _like_ a billionaire."

"Look," he said, "are you going to clown around all day, or try on the undersuit? It has to fit or the armor won't work."

"Ugh," she said, "Fine. I hope it has enough room in the chest."

"Gah!" he said, "Stop pointing that out!"

She laughed and headed over to pick up the black, rubbery undersuit she'd have to wear to operate a suit of armor, grabbed it, and headed upstairs to change.

"Jarvis," Tony said, "Finish the fabrication on the Mark I Iron Maiden."

"Maiden, sir?"

"_Jarvis!"_

* * *

><p>Doomstadt, Latveria<p>

Asuka drew in a deep breath and waited. Her staff creaked under her grasp, held out in both hands in a carefully practiced stance. In a few moments, the robots would come for her. She let out a deep breath and tensed, waiting for the inevitable attack. She winced a moment later when a cold, latex fist slapped her upside the head, making her stumble. So, they were invisible today. She whirled the staff around her head, grinned at the satisfying jar of impact, and danced a few steps to her left, her practice uniform swaying. She sucked in a fresh breath and closed her eyes.

They were invisible, but not inaudible. Advanced, yes, but the practice droids made soft sounds, their rubbery feet padding across the mats almost drowned out by the whirring of their mechanical joints. She thought there were four, which was one more than usual. He was testing her.

She waited for the first one to draw near and flicked the staff out in a probing strike, heard the machine dance out of the way and then turned herself, moving the long metal pole in a wide arc around her head. It struck one of the droids in a joint and she felt the satisfying creak of metal bending. Louder now, the invisible droid stumbled to the side and gave itself away, and she finished it with a quick stroke to the head target, disabling it. Keeping her eyes closed, she turned her back to it and spun her staff again, hitting nothing.

He really was testing her today. A much less gentle tap to the side of the head made her stumble and she almost tripped over the body of the fallen machine before she regained her balance and lanced out with a blow that took nothing but air. She clenched her teeth and listened, forcing herself to identify the machines and their movements. The next one went down with a foot sweep and a downward stroke that blew out its chest target, followed by the third, which lifted bodily from the ground when she rammed the end of the pole under its chin.

That left only the fourth one. She circled it and it circled her, its position clear now, as the only source of sound in the room. She opened her eyes to make sure she wouldn't trip over one of the disabled and thus visible practice targets, focused on the source of the sound, and unleashed a flurry of blows.

She hit nothing.

Without warning, a rubberized mechanical foot planted itself her the small of her back and sent her sprawling. She yelped in surprise and dropped her staff, and when she rolled to it, an invisible foot planted on her wrist. Struggling, she grabbed at the ankle of the machine, but it was too heavy, and she had no leverage. She felt it reach down and close invisible manipulators around her throat.

The droid flew back fifteen feet and exploded into a shower of sparks and a puddle of metal and melted rubber that hissed on the mats, surrounded by flames. A small, tracked unit rolled into the gymnasium and sprayed it, then trundled over to her and shot her with a puff of compressed carbon dioxide that made her gasp and cough, waving it away from her face. She looked down at the burnt, carbonized remains of the sleeve of her practice uniform and peeled a layer of charcloth away from her skin, where it left sooty smudges on her alabaster flesh.

The door opened and he walked in. She immediately jumped to her feet and then dropped into a kneeling supplication, her eyes on the floor. Victor von Doom in his armor was almost eight feet tall, and the ground shook where he walked, each clanking mechanical step more of a stomp. His armor appeared primitive, but concealed high technology, the equal or better of the American, Stark. Only his eyes were visible with a frowning steel mask under a dark green hood. He regarded her for a moment and she felt the weight of his massive gaze on the back of her head.

"Rise."

Shakily, she stood up. "My Lord, I-"

"Silence. You used your gift in anger again, _child_. That is what children do."

"I know, my lord. I apologize."

"Do not apologize. Rule yourself."

"Yes, my lord."

She dared to look up and face him. His armored visage towered over her, but she was not afraid of him, not exactly. So many of the toadying government ministers in the palace would have soiled themselves at a critical word from Von Doom, but not Asuka. She understood his harshness as a kindness, as necessary to prepare her for the inevitable war that only they knew was coming. She clenched her fists and faced him. His metal mask remained a frowning blank, but his eyes shifted ever so slightly, a sort of recognition dawning in them.

"See to it that you are properly attired for affairs of state. We will hold court this afternoon."

She inclined her head. "Yes, my lord."

She knelt as he turned and left the room, as was the custom. When he was gone, she rose, discarded her burnt uniform and showered, taking special care to remove the grimy soot from the lines and creases in her hand. When she was finished, she retired to her chambers in her robe, where her attendants would braid her hair and help her dress in her formal gown, a flowing and overly elaborate contraption derived from royal Latverian traditional garb, green slashed with red across the bodice and sleeves. Von Doom had given her the honor of allowing her personal device, a red flame on a yellow field, under his own on the body of her dress.

In the Great Hall, Doom sat affecting boredom on a hugeoutsized throne built to accept the mass and weight of the armor. He leaned his head casually on his left fist and had thrown his right leg over his left. She took her customer place, standing two steps behind and to his left, whereas the various ministers sat to his right, studying the floor until they were called on to speak. One of her lord's many valets appeared at the opposite end of the hall in coat and tails, bowed, and announced their guest.

"My Lord, I present Nick Fury, director of SHIELD."

Doom waved a hand and Asuka straightened herself, rising to her full height. She was tall for a girl and for her age, just turned fifteen, and as beautiful as her long lost mother, whose fiery red hair had been tinged with gold by her father's contribution. She tried to make her eyes match those of von Doom, hard, cold, and calculating.

Fury strode into the room with a calculated nonchalance that galled her, and neither bowed nor properly supplicated himself. He was a tall American, head shaven, with a goatee and an apparent fondness for leather and black. The straps of a shoulder rig were plainly visible under the open placket of his coat, and the security droids lining the hall watched him carefully, as if such a toy would be any threat to von Doom. She stiffened at the thought of anyone doing him harm and imagined him screaming as there was nothing left of him but a pile of white ash. The thought amused her.

"Vic," Fury smirked. The left side of his face twisted, pulled by a dozen scars that ran under and around an eyepatch.

Her lord did not move. "Fury," he boomed. "You are the ninth to bear that name, I think."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Fury smirked.

"We should abandon the absurd fiction that the same man has been director of Shield for sixty years. I don't recall you being Black, for example. Are you issued an eyepatch after accepting the position, or is it a requirement for application? Binocular vision, need not apply?"

Fury smiled thinly. "I'm here to talk to you about Nerv."

Doom sat up. "I am listening, Fury. Don't waste my time."

"They're building something under that fortress city of theirs. It could be a threat."

"I see Shield lives up to its reputation. It 'could be'."

Fury frowned. "This is serious, Victor."

"If there is a threat to my European Union," Doom gestured grandly with one hand to the map painted on the wall over his head, "I will deal with it."

"All the same," Fury said, his frown stretching into a scowl. "There may be something to this that neither one of us can handle alone."

"We will see," said Doom. "If there will be nothing further, get off my continent."

The rest of the day of court was boring, as inevitably was. Court ministers referring complaints about this or that crackdown, progress on the food shortages, complaints about the construction projects, agriculture reports. Doom dealt with them all and dismissed his ministers, gesturing for her to stay when the room had been cleared. He even dismissed the droids.

"This organization, Nerv," he said to her, "does present a threat to us."

"I presume you have a plan to deal with it already in place, my lord."

Despite the inflexible visage of his mask, he seemed quite pleased. "You are a central part of it."

"I am?" she said, excitement bubbling in her voice. She fought the urge to wince at the unwarranted display of emotion. He had taught her better than that.

"Indeed. They are building weapons."

"Am I to do battle with them?"

"No. You are to… relieve them of one."

* * *

><p>Ritsuko Akagi was beginning to really hate kids. Thankfully, the insipid little brats were gone and the tour was over. She was thoroughly annoyed that Gendo had tasked her with babysitting at their inane tourist attraction, and this displeasure showed on her face when she strode into his office. Huge and calculatedly imposing, the room was a cavernous black room with a low ceiling, devoid of furniture except for an immaculately polished black desk. She smirked a little at the thought of whoever polishing it after the pen in the pocket of her labcoat had scuffed the finish a few months ago.<p>

Like a spider in the center of his web, Gendo Ikari sat hunched over the desk, studying some report. He looked up at her through a pair of old glasses that didn't quite fit, forcing him to push them up his nose. He was a tall, narrow sort of man whose uniform made him look like an undertaker. He sat back and steepled his gloved hands in front of his face in what she knew to be an infantile gesture designed to create distance between himself and whoever spoke to him. She sighed, but had long given up on trying to teach him some social graces. She was a bit short on them herself.

She tossed the dossier down on his desk. "They're sending another one. The Marduk Institute has identified the Third. It's von Doom's heir."

"We will deal with her," Gendo said, half talking into his hands. Ritsuko hated when he did that.

"Carefully, I hope," she added. "We can't risk von Doom's anger."

"He is aware of the risks. Our technology is volatile. If she proves useful, we will take excellent care of her. If she proves less than tractable, it will be simple to wash our hands of an 'accident'. How is the First faring?"

"The newly decanted clone is blending in. Shinji didn't seem to notice. We've been lucky, so far. We need to find a way to control them."

He winced at the mention of his son. He sat up and tugged at his gloves a bit. It was, so far as she knew, the one thing that could get any sort of reaction out of him. He quickly resumed his mask of composure, tinged as it was by a thin ghost of a smirk. "Has he proven to be acceptable for the program?"  
>"Yes, he has the gene. I'll be worried if it expresses itself."<p>

"We have the facilities for that, should the need arise."

"Are you sure about that? It's getting crowded down there as it is."

"Essex has the facility well in hand," Gendo said as he slipped back into his pose. "He has our utmost confidence."

She took that as the signal to leave. The signal to stay would have been if they had been tearing each other's clothes off. She turned without salutation and walked out, relaxing a bit as she left the office. She had an odd sensation in there of late, as if they weren't alone. It made her shudder a little, involuntarily, as she took the elevator down to the Evangelion cages.

It always amazed her how the people working in the vast spaces could appear so normal, could ignore the bizarreness of what they were seeing. The Evas were fundamentally _wrong_, somehow. Part of it was their proportions. Sixty feet tall and humanoid, their limbs were too long and thin, their heads a little too big. The armor that enhanced and contained them, and disguised them as robots to the world above and the people working on them, added to the effect.

Each was different. The production model was the sleekest, with four "eyes" to see better, sloping armor designed to repel projectiles, as if that were necessary, and an overall less hunched shape. The test type was more sinister, a huge and unnecessarily purple thing with a massive horn on its beetle-like head. The prototype, now trapped in Bakelite and absent from the cages, was the most unnerving of all, with its pure white armored body and staring, unblinking monocular eye. She passed through the cages on the way to her lab, stopping to gaze up at the machines, kept up to their chests in the regenerative link control liquid.

Maya Ibuki, her assistant, squeaked as she walked into the room. The girl was slight, boyish, and too damn young, making Ritsuko feel like an old woman every time she entered her presence. She desperately needed a cigarette, but there were other matters to attend to.

"Help me with this," she said tiredly.

Maya locked the door, and then walked to Ritsuko side. She helped her shrug off her labcoat. Maya gasped.

"You're bleeding."

"It's nothing," Ritsuko said. "Get it off me."

Maya undid the straps that held the harness to Ritsuko's body, pressing her wings against her bare back, hidden under her customary labcoat. With a sigh she unfolded them, a pair of snowy white wings that when stretched reached nearly double her height. She sighed and straightened herself and Maya blushed for no real reason, other than being Maya, probably. The girl was right, the straps had cut into her shoulders and she was bleeding a little. She drew her wings up and winced; the joints hurt from the compression.

"I don't know why you're so ashamed of these," Maya said as she applied the stinging disinfectant to the wounds. "They're kind of pretty."

"Because I don't want Essex to have an excuse to add me to his freak show, that's why," Ritsuko sighed. She took a seat in an office chair, pulling the back up to her chest to let her wings breathe. They twitched a little as Maya finished applying the bandages. The girl tentatively stroked one of them, and Ritsuko gasped.

"Don't _do_ that," she snapped.

"I'm sorry!" Maya jumped back.

"It feels strange. Just don't do it."

Maya hurriedly changed the subject, dropping into a seat at her terminal. "I heard we're getting a new kid. Is it true?"

"Yes," Ritsuko said idly as she logged in to her computer. "Asuka Soryu von Doom."

Maya stared at her, open mouthed. "Did you say _von Doom_?"

"Yes," said Ritsuko, "as if we don't have enough problems as it is."

"Yeah. How did the science thing go? Did the kids have fun?"

Ritsuko huffed, and then flushed as she realized her anger made her wings beat a little. "I don't know. I hate kids."

"Aww," said Maya, happily typing away at her terminal. "I bet the boys were all drooling over you."

"Please," said Ritsuko, glancing over her shoulder. "It was annoying, more than anything. I don't see why we need to put on a public face, considering the importance of our work. The UN is going to fund us, either way."

"Yeah," said Maya. "It's like there's some secret cabal making sure we get our way."

Ritsuko eyed her. "Don't joke about things like that."

"Sorry," Maya said sheepishly.

* * *

><p>The one thing Misato needed right now was a cold beer, and there was none, and that was a terrible tragedy. She stared at her bereft refrigerator and sighed deeply. She closed the door with a little too much force and surveyed her situation. Her pet penguin was, well, a penguin, and therefore could not complete a beer run; the same was true of her roommate, who sat listlessly at the kitchen table, working on some homework problem or other. She sighed, realized she was going to have to go get it herself, and hesitated. She didn't feel like going out at all, really.<p>

The kid worried her. He'd been here three months, and all he ever did was go to school, hang around with that Rei girl, and sit around the apartment. Sometimes he went out for a run, he said, but that was it. She had to admit, if she had his screwed up life, she'd be a little weird too. Well, as weird. The kid was raised by a pair of uncles for most of his life, and then brought here to be tested, probed, and trained as an Eva pilot. He didn't with his own father, and his only friend, if she could be called that, was his cousin who was here for the same reason. They weren't so much friends as Shinji followed her like a lost puppy, as if he needed someone to tell him what to do. It was a little sad.

"Hey," she said, resting a hand on his shoulder. He winced a little. "Want to go out with me for a while? I need to make a beer run, get some air."

"Okay," he said, putting down his pen. "If you say so."

"I don't _say so," _she said, a little more strenuously than she meant to. "If you want to. I'm worried about you."

"Why?" he said, blinking at her in genuine surprise.

She shrugged. His eyes wandered a little lower than her face and he blushed profusely, then fidgeted as he tried to look anywhere else. She suppressed a smile. At least he was a _little_ normal. "I don't like to see a kid being so quiet, is all. You should spend more time with people your own age."

"Rei says I shouldn't," said Shinji.

"Well," said Misato. "Rei isn't here. Let's go have some fun."

"Okay," he sighed.

She looked down at her skimpy top and cut off shorts. "Let me go change."

She bounced out of the room, happy to get some kind of a reaction out of him for once. Behind her, he sat at the table, head propped on one hand. He focused his gaze on the pile of beer cans overflowing from the garbage can of their little kitchen and raised his other hand. He flexed his fingers a little, and the can popped and contorted into a ball. Misato didn't notice a thin smirk form on his lips.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes<p>

A beer can probably isn't ferromagnetic. Let's pretend it has a little iron in it. In the future, anything that involves "(blank) isn't ferromagnetic" will be answered with "let's pretend it has a little iron in it".

Unlike my last Eva/Superhero fic, this has been planned as a "fusion" from the beginning, rather than one element being forced into the Eva world with later expansion. Expect loads and loads of characters; just because someone didn't appear here doesn't mean they're not in the story. Like Fuyutsuki. He's cool. He'll be in it. Maybe he's Wolverine. On second thought, that's probably a bad idea.

The prologue won't be the only flashback, I've decided I'll (likely) do frequent jumps back to the forties, sixties, and leading up to impact, to avoid tedious info dumps. The Marvel material I'm incorporating will lift from the recent movies as well as the comic storylines I like and the What If/non-canon miniseries _Earth X_.

One more thing: I _did_ do research, but I can't find any readily available information about Mac Brazel other than the names of his family members and the fact that he was the guy that reported the Roswell crash. Other than the name and location, his characterization is a complete invention and I don't mean to insult him by implying he didn't know how to read; this was necessary for story purposes.


	2. Not Your Problem

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 2: Not Your Problem

* * *

><p>Present Day<p>

Albany, New York

The United States was not what Asuka expected.

Her adopted father's ministry of public information painted a very clear picture: America was a poor, devastated country, much of her vital coastal cities wiped out during the fury of Second Impact. The new coastline, pushed some twenty miles inwards, was dotted with ruins and abandoned cities, while in the interior, the sudden economic turmoil and rush of refugees left what was once the world's breadbasket a devastated land. Clearly, the American authorities had put a great deal of effort into convincing international visitors that the nation was still viable.

The airport, a post-Impact structure, was built to replace the destroyed airports of coastal New York. This stop was the end of the first leg in her journey to Tokyo-3, on the far side of the world. All in all, the place was banal. The concourse was only slightly different from the one at Latveria International Airport. The security here was less obvious. Instead of patrolling security droids there were fat, ineffectual looking men in comedic uniforms replete with tin badges of authority. One of them even offered to carry her bad, suggesting that it looked too heavy for her. Doom had warned her that the Americans would try to lull her into a false sense of security with their bland lack of apparent government control, beige carpeting, and copious retail stores. He had been right.

She realized as she was walking aimlessly towards the gate where she would catch her next flight that she was gawking like a tourist and straightened herself into her most regal bearing, meeting the gaze of every passerby. The Americans had no doubt set up this entire tableaux for her benefit, with the mewling children, suited businessmen and other nondescript travellers all around her looking decidedly unlike the fleabitten refugees she knew dominated this ruined country. She smirked in amusement; if the firm hand of Doom were to bless these people, such mummery would be unnecessary.

She cursed herself when she caught on. She realized she was being followed, and had been for some time, the two men shadowing her having taken advantage of her reverie. She was glad Doom was not here to reproach her for her laxitude. The men were like night and day. One was short and unassuming, with brown hair and eyes and a fairly unremarkable face, though he was clearly a powerful athlete and the way he carried himself suggested a familiarity with combat, or perhaps formal training. He pointedly looked everywhere but at her, aiming the expensive looking camera that hung from a strap around his neck without ever actually photographing anything.

The other was a fine specimen, well over six feet tall, pale blond hair and blue eyes. He had a strong chin and a military bearing and was the sort that went undercover in a casual windbreaker and a casual pair of slacks and completely forgot to not wear combat boots to complete the ensemble. The boots themselves fed her a wealth of information. They weren't standard issue black or desert tan, but a light brown, rather, and may even have been red at some point- the wear on his boots hinted at a professional, an operator. He had something overly large stuffed in a duffel bag over his shoulder.

She hoped these idiots didn't mean to kidnap her. It would be a shame to burn down such a beautiful airport.

Taking the simplest route, she ducked away from her gate- she had over an hour- and headed into something called a "food court". Why food would hold court, she had no idea. She took a place in line for something called a 'Burger King', assuming that a burger touting itself king would be the best burger. She had heard of the American predilection for greasy, disgusting meat slop and found her suspicions confirmed upon reaching the counter.

She was addressed by an overly pimpled youth in an absurd paper hat. "What can I get for you, miss?"

"I would like…" she scanned the menu, "a… whopper? I should like cheese on it, I think."

The boy typed out something on the device in front of him. "Would you like fries with that?"

"Water," she said, and handed over a sheaf of bills. The clerk looked at it in surprise, and handed most of it back with a few coins and a few bills of smaller denomination. She shoved the wad of cash into her small purse, accepted the food in a greasy feeling paper bag, and adjourned to a table to eat.

The texture, grease, and melted cheese were surprisingly pleasant. She was still confused as to the rationale for drowning herself in sugar water. She took a look around. Her pursuers had melted into the crowd, or at least tried to. The man with the camera she could not find, but the tall soldier-type was easy to pick out, leaning casually against a concrete column on the far side of the court. He did a much better job than his compatriot of watching her without watching her, but had still clearly chosen a place to stand with a clear view of the exits and escape routes.

Amateurs.

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3, Japan<p>

Hikari awoke with the beeping of her alarm and immediately looked down at her belly to make sure she hadn't been dreaming. She sighed in relief as she saw the neatly formed ridges of her newly visible abdominal muscles were still there. The day before felt like a strange half-nightmare, and she still felt a little woozy. Eating so much of Kodama's cooking hadn't helped. Her sisters couldn't make up their minds. First, they were needling her about being anorexic because she ate too little, and now that she had an appetite they were demanding to know why she ate so much.

She stood up and tripped as the sheet on her futon came with her, tripping her up. The fabric was stuck to the palms of her hands. She shook them angrily but the cotton refused to come free. She held them up in front of her face, pulling the sheet around herself as she did.

"What the heck?"

She grabbed at one hand with the other, tugging at the sheet, and winced as she heard strands of thread popping, followed by the distinctive purr of fabric ripping.

"Hikari?" Kodama called "What the hell are you doing in there? Turn that alarm off!"

She squeaked in alarm as she realized she'd left the alarm on, and turned to it, dragging the sheet with her. Thankfully, the cloth popped free. Unfortunately, it twisted around her legs and she fell, landing hard on her shoulder. She jumped and slapped the top of the clock to shut it off.

The clock simply disintegrated, the alarm screech descending into a painful moan as it did. She stood up and gaped at the remains of her night stand. The clock was shattered into a wirey mess of plastic shards and broken liquid crystal display, and the top of the stand was a ruin. A crater in the shape of her hand broke through the middle of the top, which had splintered into four or five pieces. The whole thing leaned drunkenly, creaking as the cracked sides pulled apart until with the characteristic whine of splintering wood, it fell over with a crash.

"Hi_kari!_"

* * *

><p>When Asuka finally made her way to the departure gate for her connection to Oregon, she found that the flight would be fuller than she expected. Thankfully, no one seemed to recognize her, except for the blindingly obvious 'covert' security presence; the two men that tailed her from the landing gate had been joined by a third, a short, hairy, and somewhat smelly man with painfully absurd sideburns and a predilection for denim, slouching under an actual cowboy hat.<p>

Bored of waiting, she decided to drag her carry-on along with her and peruse the selection at the book store nearest the gate. She was stunned by the banality of it all. Many of the magazines had lewd photographs of women on the covers and purported in large letters to contain instructions on how to have a better orgasm, and, curiously, the "Men's Interest" section was _worse_.

She watched her tail split up and deliberately sit away from each other until the flight was called. Fortunately, she was travelling first class, the only accommodation to her status made in the planning for her travel, and so was permitted to board first. After she crawled into the plane and settled herself against a window seat, having harshly jammed her carry on into the overhead compartment, she watched with some amusement as her escorts walked past her and through the curtain into the aft section of the airplane where the cheaper seats were located. The notion of the American government being such spendthrifts that they seated their secret agents in coach amused her greatly.

* * *

><p>Mari crept quietly down the stairs towards the lab, where she found the panel she wanted and slid it away from the wall. Anyone unfamiliar with the house' design would never have known where it was, but she had been good friends with Jarvis since she'd been born. It was easier to fit in here when she was a little girl, but with some effort she twisted herself into the cavity and slid the cover back in place, and then flicked on her flashlight.<p>

The tunnel smelled of grease, dust, and the curious, acrid smell computer parts make when they warm up. She wasn't actually in here to try hacking Jarvis today- 'he' had once compared that to being tickled, to her great amusement- she was there to listen in. Her father was a very flippant man, and when he accepted a visitor at his remote mansion and actually treated that person with respect, it made her sit up and take notice.

The visitor looked around the lab with mildly concealed amusement, and an obvious familiarity. He was tall and well-built and was the sort who wore a leather trench coat no matter what the actual weather was like outside, probably because if you wear an eye patch and have dueling scars you have to wear a leather trench coat. Something in the union, probably. She crept as close as she could to the vent grate and watched intently.

"I love what you've done with the place," the visitor said. "I wish we could get you out in the field more often. The world misses the famous Steve and Tony bromance."

"Did he actually say _bromance?_" Tony snickered, taking a sip of coffee.

"No. I like to embellish."

"Look, Nick, I'm all about old times, but is there a point to this? I have work to do."

Without a word, the visitor –Nick, apparently- pulled a small manila envelope from inside his coat and dropped it on the table next to Tony. Her father picked it up, slid the contents out, and started going through them.

"Is this the report on this Nerv group?"

"Yes. This is bigger than we thought. They may be preparing to move on Valkyrie."

Tony looked up at him, incredulous. "That's impossible."

Nick shook his head. "They have a lot of resources. Half the developed world is tied up in the UN now, and after us and the Euros pulled out, there's no one left to dissent. Then, there's these Eva things."

"Does Doom know about this?"

"Hard to tell," Nick said as he scanned the armored suits, "You know how he is. Bring something up and he'll bluster about how he already knew about it and is three steps ahead. We have to assume he does. His daughter is on her way to Tokyo-3 now. I have eyes on her at all times."

"She's flying _commercial_?" Tony said, incredulously.

"This is Doom we're talking about here. He plays everything like some kind of eleven dimensional chess. He wants us to know that he's sending her 'in secret' so he told her she was undercover and made sure we would know when and where."

"What the hell for?"

"Who knows." Nick shrugged. "Look at the last picture," he said gravely.

Tony stared at it, scanning it. He held it so she couldn't see, facing away from the vent. His eyes finally settled on the corner and he drew it up to his face, then gasped and involuntarily let it slip from his fingers. He spun the chair and turned on the visitor.

"When did they take that?"

"Three weeks ago, in Thailand."

"It can't-"

"It is. We're sure. It's him."

"Jesus," Tony whispered. "_Jarvis_! Get Reed Richards on the phone, upstairs."

"Yes sir," Jarvis replied.

"Over here," Tony wheeled away from the counter. "We'll take the elevator."

She waited as long as she could contain herself after they left, slid the grate open, and used it to scissor down to the floor. She crept over the table and looked around.

"Miss Mari-" said Jarvis.

"Not now!" she snapped, then more quietly, "Jarvis, come on. I need to see this."

She turned the picture over. It was a photograph of a seemingly ordinary boardroom, a little blurry, probably taken through a window with a telephoto lens. She didn't see anything remarkable about the people sitting around the table- an old, hunched man with some sort of visor around his face, a drawn, thin man with an overlarge nose, and a few others with the back turned. At first, she though the tall, thin man slouching in a dark suit at the opposite end of the table was wearing a mask, but after a while she wasn't sure. It looked to real, too fleshy, for lack of a better word. She swallowed, hard.

His face was a skull. It was a red skull.

* * *

><p>Something was happening to Hikari, and it terrified her.<p>

Until gym class. Then, it was _awesome_.

First of all, her uniform swimsuit had _never _fit this well. She'd always been a little self- conscious about her belly and her unimpressive bust and the jiggle of her legs when she walked, but today she couldn't resist making sure the boys on the lower court on the other side of the chain link fence could see her. She grinned from ear to ear as Toji and the Aida boy stared at her, open mouthed. She noticed something and frowned. Ikari sat alone, his back to the fence, hunched on himself. A basketball bounced near him and he flinched, and the fence behind him quivered, ringing as if something had hit it.

The staring continued in the changing room, along with a few whispered comments and titters. She slipped back into her uniform and headed back to class with a half-grin on her face, almost strutting. She stopped in the hallway, averting her eyes from theirs. It took her a moment to realize they were eyeing _her_, rather than some of the other girls passing by in the hall. She felt that sudden sense again, like a ghostly insect crawling up the back of her neck, and shuffled a step.

It all sort of happened it once. Toji, being the genius that he was, picked that moment to approach her, grinning lamely. "Hi miss Horaki," he said.

"Oh!" she squeaked in surprise. The buzzing grew more intense. "Call me Hikari."

"I was wondering, if you want, I could, you know," Toji said sheepishly, "walk you home from school, and-"

The buzzing grew to a crawling, unpleasant tug that made the muscles in the back of her neck bunch up. One of the upperclassmen put a hand on Toji's shoulder and gave him a little shove.

"Get lost, shrimp," the upperclass boy said. "I was about to-"

Hikari didn't know exactly how, or how fast, she had the older boy pinned against the wall. She had both hands up under his chin, holding his collar, and his feet dangled about an inch above the floor. He groaned, struggling against her futilely until, eyes wide, she let go and took a step back.

"I-I'm not interested," she said, breathless. "Leave me alone."

The buzzing shifted, now, and everything around her seemed to slow. Not quite knowing why, she ducked to her left, only to watch a hand glide past her head and slam into the wall. The other boy had tried to hit her and missed, and was off balance. She gave him a little push under the arm and watched him slam into the ground and slide along the floor. He laid there, wheezing, until his friend pulled him to his feet and the both darted down the hallway as the bell rang.

"How did you do that?" said Toji.

"Uh," she looked around hastily, "I've, um, been working out."

He scratched his head. "Okay. So, umm, I'll see you later."

"After school?" she said sweetly.

"Uh," he said, "maybe another day." Then, he scuttled off to Kensuke, who had been filming the whole thing, of course.

She sighed and walked into the classroom, deflated. No one else paid her any mind as she slumped in her chair, not even Shinji.

No one, that is, except Ayanami.

* * *

><p>There were parts of her job that Maya really hated. Those parts included ferrying papers about for Doctor Akagi, which meant visiting a number of less than savory people. The first person she had to see today was Captain Katsuragi, who was weird, not unpleasant. The woman was a study in contrasts. She could be immensely serious during training exercises and somehow a total goof off the rest of the time, such as now, when she sat in her office regarding the stack of forms that Maya was about to add to with a look usually reserved for mortal enemies. It surprised Maya that Katusragi and Akagi were cordial, if somewhat distant, friends.<p>

Katsuragi was a study in contrasts another way, too. She ate garbage and somehow was one of the most attractive women Maya had ever met, like she was sculpted by some sort of perverted pin-up artist. She bounced noticeable as Maya entered the office, grinning to see her. Maya let out a soft sigh.

"I brought the repair reports on Unit Zero for you to sign off on," she said quietly.

Katsuragi's expression immediately stiffened. "Just put then anywhere," she waved a hand, muttering something about beer. "I'll get to them."

"Doctor Akagi says-"

"I know, I know. Tell her you told me."

Sighing, Maya dumped the stack of papers on top of Katusragi's desk, desperately willing the entire stack of printed reports not to topple over.

The next stop she had to make was decidedly less pleasant. She had to wait to be buzzed into the Commander's office, a huge, chthonic structure that made her skin crawl whenever she was inside. She really, really wished the security protocols permitted emails every time she walked up to the huge double doors and pressed the buzzer.

"Give us a moment," the Commander replied through the little speaker on the wall.

She resisted the urge to tap her foot as she waited. Whoever was in there with him, it must have been important. After what seemed like forever, the doors buzzed and swung inwards, and she walked inside. The man sat hunched over his desk, alone. She blinked and looked around the office, found it empty, and realized with a barely suppressed squeak of alarm that he was watching her. She hurriedly made her way to the desk, slipped out the report she was to deliver to him, and laid it on his desk.

"Doctor Akagi-"

He waved a hand at her.

Swallowing, she turned and walked out as quickly as she could, glancing over her shoulder as she did. He waited for her to pass through the doors before he slipped the folder across the desk and opened it, just as the doors slammed shut in her face. She shook her head and wondered what the hell she was doing here. The worst part was, this was the favorable alternative to the task she'd been saving for last. She had to go see Essex.

An overwhelming sense of dread came over her as she watched the floor counter in the elevator tick down. When she reached the appropriate level, she had to hold her hand to the door to have her palm print red, and hold her eyelid open to have her retina scanned before she was allowed in. Even in the depths of the base, security was extra tight for what lay within these walls. Every visit here was a battle against the desire to ask questions. She had a report she wasn't allowed to read and she had to drop it off, and she wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Everything down here was behind its own plain metal door, except for Essex' office, which stood open. He was inside when she arrived, and her stomach clenched; she'd hoped to drop the envelope on his desk and leave as quickly as possible. Instead, as she entered, Essex jumped to his feet and walked around the desk, and cordially took her free hand in his in a sort of old world gesture of courtesy. His skin made her hair nearly stand on end. It was wrong _because_ it was so smooth and perfect, and so cold.

He was a tall, heavily built man of indeterminate years who favored a three piece suit under his labcoat, in an archaic cut. His skin was pale from lack of exposure to real sunlight- some people said he never left the lower levels. With his jet black hair and cropped goatee, he reminded her of a vampire. She shivered when he touched her, and looked at the floor. His shoes were perfect, even.

"Ah, miss Ibuki. Such a pleasure to see you. What brings you down to the evolutionary lab today?"

"I have s-some reports," she stammered, thrusting the folder out in front of her. She still avoided his gaze.

He took the folder and flipped through it. "Ah, the data on the new candidate. I have such high hopes for this one."

"If there will be nothing else, sir," she whispered, slipping her hand out of his.

"Of course not," he leaned on the side of the desk. "Unless you'd like to join me. I'm just on my way for supper."

"I-I have work to do."

"Of course. I wouldn't want to ruffle any feathers."

Trying her best not to shiver, Maya hurried to the elevator, and thankfully, he didn't catch up. She let out a long breath as she rode up to the upper level and felt a little better when she got back to the lab and slid into her seat.

Ritsuko pushed her glasses up her nose and sat up from her work. She had the harness and lab coat on, today. Maya sighed.

"Essex creep you out again?"

"Yeah," Maya leaned back in her chair. "There's something about him. He's… sinister."

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was as boring as usual. That is, until Hikari stood up at the bell and the top of her desk popped off. When the bell rang, she rose, and when she did, she naturally lifted her hand from where it sat atop the desk. Unfortunately, the top of the desk decided to come with it with a loud <em>bang<em> as the bolts holding it place came loose. She immediately sat down and balanced it on her lap, perilously keeping her laptop from sliding off and crashing to the floor. She waited patiently until only the old teacher was in the room.

With her free hand, she slid her laptop into her bag, and then stood up again, holding onto the desktop deliberately this time. "I'm going to take this down to the maintenance closet," she said, hurrying out of the room. The old man didn't seem to pay much attention.

She slipped out of the building and around the back, thankful that no one was hanging around today. She put her bag down and tried to yank the board free of her hand, only for it to pull away just a bit. It adhered to her palm by thin, silvery strands of thread that connected to the red spot on her wrist.

She leaned against the wall and sank down until she was sitting on the ground. Tears welled in her eyes. She didn't know what was happening, none of this made any sense. The thread snapped when she took hold of the board with her other hand, put her knee on it, and pried herself free. She brushed off the remaining threads on the wall and ran, barely remembering her backpack. She headed down into the city, finally pausing in the short alley between a two of the low buildings on the periphery of the market district.

She sat there in the dirt, staring at her hands for a while. She let out a soft, surprised sound as tiny hairs slid out from the palm of her hand and her fingertips, stiff and sharp looking. Tentatively, she reached around behind her and rested her hand on the wall, and to her surprise, it stuck. She tugged at it but it wouldn't come free.

"Come on," she said to herself, "If I can turn it on, I can turn it off."

She tried flexing her forearm this way and that, until finally, when she tensed the muscles just right, her hand popped free. She touched her palm with her fingers and found it smooth and unmarred. She stood up and looked at the wall, and made a decision. She put one hand on it, and flexed those little muscles again. Her hand stuck. She put one foot on the wall, pushed up off the ground, and put her other hand a little higher. With each movement, she got her hands free a little faster, until she was almost running up the wall. She positioned herself on the edge of the roof, four floors up, and looked back down. She started in surprise, and, naturally, fell off.

She screamed as she watched the bricks blurr past her head and reached futilely for ledge, but it was too late.

"Oh shit! _Shitshitshitshit…"_

_Thwip!_

A streamer of silvery fluid lanced out from her wrist and connected to the roofline with a splat. Yelping in surprise, she grabbed onto it for dear life, grunting as she swung into the side of the building. She hung there for a moment, a good thirty feet off the ground, and then reached up and started pulling herself up the strand. She reached the roof again and turned around to sit on the ledge. When she let go of the thread, it fell and swayed beneath her, moving lightly in the wind.

"Okay," she said, "what the hell is going on?"

The spider. The spider bit her. She could stick to walls. The thread, it was a _web._ Her stomach lurched. What next, was she going to sprout more legs? Wake up tomorrow with a big spider-head? Tasting bile in her mouth, she rolled away from the edge of the roof and laid there for a while, curled on herself, shaking. Finally, she took a deep breath.

"Okay, Hikari," she said aloud, "You can handle this."

On all fours, she made her way to the edge of the roof, made sure no one had wandered into the alley, and slowly made her way down, one hand at a time. Slipping her shoes off, she found she could make her feet stick, too, and had a much faster time making it to the ground. She put her shoes back on, grabbed her bag, and ran home as fast as she could.

* * *

><p>Shigeru Aoba had one of the more boring jobs at Nerv. Sure, the salary was great and he had awesome benefits, along with the intangible benefit of working with some of the hottest women he'd ever seen. Someone in the human resources department must have won a bet. The problem was, most of the time, he sat monitoring a station in a command information center where nothing ever happened, and which no one ever used. The vast majority of his work there was watching a screen reporting that nothing was happening, sitting next to a boring geek named Makoto Hyuga who had the critical task of not reporting to anyone that nothing was happening. All the time.<p>

Their conversations were things of legend.

"Do you think…" Hyuga started, staring wistfully at some stupid manga about giant robots.

"No," Aoba cut him off, leaning back in his chair. He resisted the urge to start spinning around.

The bespectacled geek eyed him angrily. "You didn't let me finish."

"They're never going to promote you, Katsuragi would never date you, no matter how many times you do her laundry, and the Commander is not a vampire. We've been over this."

"I wasn't going to bring any of that up."

"Oh? Then what were you going to say?"

"I was going to say… hey, what's that?"

Sighing, Aoba sat up and looked at his workstation. The monitor had suddenly gone from its perpetual nothing-to-report status to a blinking blue blip on a map, along the coast. He stared at it for a moment, and then started typing out the commands for an analysis.

"You don't think…"

"Probably a false read bug," said Hyuga. "They come up now and then. Or someone is running a test and didn't tell us, I'm sure."

The prompt returned with the result.

"Holy shit," Aoba breathed. "Get everybody up here. Now."

* * *

><p>Maya watched Ritsuko put the phone receiver down, very slowly, and then turn to her. "Get to the CIC and sign into the Magi station there. I'll be up in a few minutes."<p>

"What?" said Maya. "Why?"

"They've detected a blue pattern. Magi have confirmed," Ritsuko said, a pen clenched in her mouth as she stuffed instruments into the pockets of her labcoat, "I have to go make sure Unit One is prepped. This could be the real thing."

"What? Are you serious, I-"

"Go," she said, a little harshly, "Now. Remember the training."

Maya took a deep breath, got up, and headed for the elevator. She found it full of staff, some of them looking reather bleary- they'd probably been woken up for this. When the elevator arrived she filed out, joined by the rest of the bridge crew from the other elevators, along with several military men in fancy uniforms with grave looks on their faces. Once inside the cavernous CIC, which was laid out like the flying bridge on an old ship, she hurriedly made her way to her rarely used terminal there and began the complex process of signing in.

There was a sort of buzz as the center came to life. The big screen came on, showing a wireframe map of the area where the blue pattern had appeared, overlaid with a dozen different markings signifying all sorts of things, from power lines to defensive gun lines. Behind and above her, the JSSDF men were taking their positions and lighting cigarettes, fidgeting nervously. The Commander sat quietly behind them, unmoving, flanked by his subordinate, the dour Fuyutsuki.

"Do we have eyes on target on target?" the Commander said quietly, his voice cutting through the confusion in the room like a blade.

Coordinating that was Hyuga's job. "We have a VTOL en route, visual range in thirty seconds. Routing the gun camera to the main screen now."

The wireframe vanished, replaced by shaking, blurry footage without sound. The ground pitched and yawed below, giving way to the ruined tops of submerged buildings along the new coastline, jutting from the water like broken teeth. Something huge and vaguely human shaped moved under the surface, gliding forward in little surges. It reached the water's edge and crawled forward on all fours, then rose from crouch.

Maya shivered.

* * *

><p>"Where's Dad?" Hikari said as she slipped out of her shoes.<p>

"Called in to work," Kodama said from the kitchen. "Some kind of emergency."

"I'm going to go lay down," Hikari replied, "I'm not feeling well."

Kodama peeked at her from around the kitchen door, her freckled face wrinkled with concern. "Are you alright? You've been acting weird ever since that trip yesterday, and you broke your nightstand. Did something happen?"

"I don't know," Hikari said, the words a little higher and tighter than she'd wanted them to be.

She started to say something else, but didn't finish. That strange feeling at the back of her head came into being with furious force, so hard it made her stumble forward, and she almost fell down the stairs. Kodama caught her and was saying something, but Hikari couldn't hear it, her ears were ringing. The feeling didn't subside- she just got used to it enough to focus on her hearing.

"What is it?" her sister said frantically, "Hikari, what's wrong?"

Then, the evacuation alarms began to sound.

* * *

><p>It figured this shit would start when Misato's shift was over. The worst part was, she had to pick up the damned kid before she headed back to work. At least she was already most of the way there. He was probably at the apartment by now. She dialed his number and got a weird buzzing sound instead of an answer, and then angrily threw her phone into the passenger seat. Some jackass honked at her as she rounded the corner and slalomed into her parking lot. The kid kept breaking his damned phones, and now was not the time.<p>

Fortunately, he wasn't deaf, and he was rushing out of the complex when she pulled up, having heeded the alarms. She opened the door and shouted, "Get in!" almost drowned out by the droning alarms.

He jumped inside and closed the door with a slap. "What's going on?"

"It's here," Misato said absently, weaving through traffic. "The first angel is here."

His eyes went wide. "You mean.. I have to… they're going to make me?"

"Yes," she said, her voice hard. "I'm sorry, Shinji, but you're the only one who can."

He sank back into the seat and closed his eyes, his jaw clenched as if he was trying not to throw up. "I can't."

"You have to. You'll do fine. You've been through the simulations."

"But that's not real. I could get hurt."

"If you don't do it," she said simply, "We're all dead."

* * *

><p>Hikari tried not to fly into a blind panic as she scooped up her younger sister and a bag of clothes and canned food they'd stuffed into the hall closet and followed after Kodama, who'd weighed herself down with the same. All along their street, people were pouring out on foot, headed for the designated shelter up the way. Overhead, a buzzing flight of VTOLS roared, and Nozomi began to cry softly into her shoulder.<p>

"Come on," Kodama said. She looked surprised as she realized that Hikari was catching right up to her, pushing through the throng of people.

The shelter was a little dusty- they'd been built when this section of the city was, about four years ago, and had only been used for the occasional drill. The massive blast doors stood open, but would soon slide closed, covering the inner, more fragile doors through which they now passed. The inside was a series of musty rooms. The hallway was presently packed with people, rushing to their designated areas. It was about as orderly as one would expect.

She saw Toji, looking around frantically, trying to force his way through the throng. He was heading outside. Kodama stopped him, thumping her bag into his chest.

"Kid," she said harshly, "Wrong way."

"My sister!" he said, sharply. "I can't find her! I have to go back!"

He roughly pushed his way past them. Hikari paused.

"Take Nozomi," she said. "I'm going to help him."

"No," Kodama snapped. "You are not. It's not your problem."

"But-"

"Let's _go, _Hikari."

* * *

><p>Misato hated herself, sometimes. When she saw Shinji slumped and shuffling out of the locker room in his overly tighty, probably itchy plugsuit, the look of utter defeat on his face, she found herself in one of those times. She wanted desperately to run to his side and comfort him, but now was the time to be Captain Katsuragi, and the Captain couldn't do that. Instead, she gave him a curt nod as she watched him climb up the metal ladder, sit on the edge of the plug, and slip inside. She didn't need to be down here for the activation phase, but she wanted him to see that she cared, that someone recognized his sacrifice.<p>

"I just hope he doesn't get killed," Ritsuko said next to her. "It'll be hell finding a replacement."

Misato clenched her jaw. "Yeah. It would be a shame, all the paperwork."

Ritsuko looked at her. "I didn't- I'm-"

"Yeah," Misato brushed past her and headed for the CIC.

The elevator ride was tense, if not in despite of being alone, but because of it. She was almost glad to walk out onto the bridge, until she saw the way the JSSDF men eyed her like some sort of piece of meat. Her anger refocused her concentration.

"Status report!"

"The entity is confirmed as an angel," one of the bridge techs called back. "N2 mine enroute. We hope to destroy it outside the metropolitan area."

"What? That's-"

"None of your concern," the general in the center cut her off. "The creature is still outside your jurisdiction."

She grit her teeth but turned around and watched the view from the gun cameras on the VTOLs, overlaid on the main screen in a grid. The creature was silhouetted against the setting sun, its gangly arms swaying as it took massive, stomping steps towards the city. It resembled nothing less than an ambulatory skyscraper. Something about the scale unnerved her; it seemed unreal. Suddenly, the VTOLS pulled away, and the screen went all white as it was overtaken by static.

"Direct hit," said Aoba. "Bringing extrernal cameras online now."

What had once been some fairly pleasant countryside was now a smoking ruin, dominated by a fresh crater that was already flooding with water. Standing in the center was the angel, unharmed, wisps of smoke curling around its body.

"Impossible!" the lead general leapt to his feet, "how-"

"We warned you," Ikari said flatly. "Captain, what is the status of Unit One?"

"Ready for launch, sir," she replied. She hoped her voice didn't betray her feelings on the matter.

"Very good. Evangelion, launch."

* * *

><p>1996<p>

Berlin, Germany

Gendo was of two minds about this.

There was a certain culture shock inherent in visiting this place. He was on the other side of the world, a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land where night was day and people ate lots of sausage. He'd been invited to a meeting with one of the preeminent authors and lecturers on the subject of world mythology, and he had no idea why. His girlfriend's father was connected to the man, somehow, and recommendations had been passed around, but the precise mechanism that led to him sitting in a mansion in Germany based on those relationships eluded him, and he disliked being eluded.

He was seated on a plush couch with deep, soft leather seating, obviously an antique and expensive both now and when it was new. The entire room was opulent- this man had money, and not just money from a life as an academic. The entire room, where there wasn't a seating surface, was filled with books on heavy, antique shelves which looked newer than most of the volumes. At the far end of the antechamber was a pair of carved double doors, depicting mythological scenes; satyrs and centaurs and such. The doors swung open, apparently electrically operated, and he stood up and walked inside, briefcase clutched under one arm.

Keel was an ancient man, a hunched ruin in an electric wheelchair. He wore a pair of heavy sunglasses over his sunken eyes, and was probably blind- a true tragedy, considering the books that lined his office; the ones in here were positively ancient compared to the ones outside. As he approached, the old man behind his desk sat up and eyed him eerily; Gendo decided to re-evaluate the man's potential blindness.

"Mister Rokubungi," Keel croaked.

"Herr Professor. It is a great honor."

"Indeed. Do you know why you have been invited here?"

"I'm afraid not," he admitted.

"You have an… association with Yui Ikari, do you not?"

He blushed a little. "Yes, sir."

"Her father is a member of our organization. You have met?"

He had. Yui's father was a little old for the title, more like her grandfather, yet spry for his age. He, too, was an academic, specializing in world languages. Presumably, he had made an impression and that impression had been passed along to Keel.

"Yes."

"He spoke highly of you. You and your work might bring considerable value to our organization- Yui has already made a number of highly valuable contributions."

"What sort of contributions?"

Yui hadn't mentioned any 'organization', just the struggle for funding. The only person he knew of that was interested in her work was her professor, Fuyutsuki, the man who had introduced them last year.

"Tell me," said Keel. "What do you know of the 'ancient astronaut theory'?"

Gendo stifled a laugh. "That von Daniken nonsense? It's been debunked, hasn't it?"

"Yes, thoroughly," said Keel. "When our organization had the book published, we made sure all of the information in it was wrong, to discredit any serious academic discussion of the theory."

Gendo blinked. His glasses slipped down his nose, and he pushed them back up. "What?"

"Aliens didn't build the pyramids," said Keel, "and they don't make crop circles. Yet, we know that in modern times, the Earth has been visited."

"You mean, those incidents in New York. I thought they'd been explained?"

"Ah, yes. Mass hysteria and an accident involving the release of an experimental hallucinogen into the water supply. Do you really believe that?"

"I have my suspicions."

"There are many mysteries to be opened to you," Keel wheeled around the side of the desk. "First and foremost, the matter of the Dead Sea Scrolls."

"I thought the Scrolls had all been translated. Mundane stuff, another variation on the Bible."

"Indeed- the ones we released to the public. There are others. The speak of strange gods, young man. Gods from space who are so beyond us that we cannot even properly name them- our language is too limited. We who study them have termed them Celestials."

Gendo was feeling a little cheated, now. Thirty-six hours of travel for this?

Keel went on. "The Celestial Hosts have visited the earth four times. Once in the distant past, when they created life. Once again, when they changed life. The Third Host was responsible for the mythical Deluge. The Fourth Host left not long ago. Each time, all records of their existence were erased, all memories of their coming simply plucked from the heads of all sentient life on Earth- except from the Scrolls. We don't know why."

"I see," Gendo said, wondering when this was going to be over.

"I understand your skepticism," said Keel. "I did not believe at first. Our society studies and promotes human advancement- most of our research has been involving in unraveling and understanding the so-called x gene."

"Mutants," said Gendo.

"Quite. We have recently discovered something, in Antarctica, near the coast, buried under the ice. We believe it holds the key to human evolution- beyond humanity, beyond even mutants. The stepping stones to joining the Celestials as gods in truth."

"This is a lot to take in," said Gendo. "What is exactly that you need me to do?"

"Join us, of course. Your work will be of great utility to us. I'm afraid there is a catch, however."

"What's that?" said Gendo.

"Your wardrobe will need an upgrade."

* * *

><p>The dream was always the same.<p>

He was small, though not sure exactly how old he was, and the images were as clear in his mind as if he were seeing them now. Shinji hated the dream for one reason above all others. He knew the woman in the skintight diving suit was his mother. It was the smell- the light, airy perform she wore, and more than that, a familiar scent that he couldn't put into words. In his dream, he stood with his father in a big room full of people and beeping machines. There was an old woman there that didn't like him, and kept staring at his father and scowling at his mother.

She bent down and hugged him tight and he smelled the funny rubbery smell of the suit and her perfume and the scent of her, and he hugged her back. He didn't want her to go, because something bad was going to happen, but she didn't listen. She never listened. She stood up and ruffled his hair with her hand and kissed his father goodbye, and they walked to the window.

The Thing was in the bigger room. The Thing was full of hate, full of evil, and Shinji was terrified of it, shying away behind his father's leg. It looked up at him with a big green eye and focused on him, on just him, like it wanted him for itself. Swathed in pieces of armor plating and cables, it was hard to guess at the shape of the thing, extending far down into the cavernous cage beneath it.

His mother climbed up beside it and men in orange suits helped her put in a helmet, and then climbed into the tube- he knew it as an entry plug, but in the dream he was only a child and saw a coffin. He glanced to his side and saw the old woman smirking and his father rested his hands on the glass. He watched father's jaw clench, and he became afraid.

They turned on the machine. His mother screamed. The creature bucked and grunted, great snorting breaths blowing the red liquid away from its body. It looked at him in triumph, as if it was anticipating the day when he, too, would be consumed. He heard his father's howl of rage and saw him pounding the glass with his fists, saw the way the cuffs of his sleeves melted a little, tendrils of inky shadow working through the cracks in the glass.

Worst of all, though, was the simple fact that through it all, her face was a blur. He didn't even know what she looked like anymore.

He woke with tears in his eyes, and sucked in a sob through his teeth, before it had a chance to get away. He pressed his eyes tightly shut, for as much as he hated the dream, he wanted to see her again. Sometimes, the dream was different. Sometimes it wasn't father who broke the glass, but Shinji himself. Sometimes, all that metal, all that smooth, cold, glorious metal was his, like a part of him, but no matter how hard he pulled, she never came back.

Someone was holding him. He opened his eyes and realized he was crying into coal black hair. Miss Misato was hugging him, and she was crying, too. She sat up so he could see her face, and brushed the tear off his cheek.

"You did it," she whispered. "You won."

He looked around. He was in a hospital room. There was nothing here, but her.

"You did a great thing, today," she said. "You saved everyone."

He didn't answer. Instead, he sat up and stared at the wall in silence.

"You want to go home?" she said, pulling him into another hug. "Let's go home, so you can get some rest."

He didn't say what he really wanted. She couldn't give it to him.

* * *

><p>Asuka was thoroughly annoyed. The final leg of her flight had been delayed, leaving her stuck in America, in some awful place called Seattle-2. She saw people stretching out on the uncomfortable little chairs in the terminal around her and sleeping, but the thought horrified her; for one, she doubted the upholstery was ever cleaned, judging by the smell.<p>

Her companions had followed, naturally. The man with the camera had said his goodbyes to the others and, she presumed, caught another flight, and had been replaced by a lithe, athletic man with dirty blond hair and blue eyes of a most peculiar hue; they stood out strongly, and indeed, reminded her of her own. While the tall man with the duffle bag and the short, hairy one made a point of not looking at her except to check her position once in a while, this one almost stared at her, even daring to meet her gaze a few times.

Finally, he stood up and walked over to her. She stiffened, but continued reading her magazine, wondering if American women were actually so ignorant about the function of their bodies that they required vulgarity such as this to instruct them in their own functions. The thin man sat down a seat away from her and sighed. He looked at her for a while.

"What?" she said, finally.

"You look familiar," he said. There was a note of apprehension in his voice. "Have we met?"

"No," she said flatly, without looking up from her magazine.

"You remind me of somebody I knew once. She was half Japanese."

"Is there something you want?" she said, annoyed.

The man with the duffle bag approached. "Miss, your flight will be boarding soon. The emergency is over."

She looked up at him. "Dropping the pretenses, I see."

"Unfortunately, we won't be able to follow you to Japan."

The thinner man looked at her, and his voice was strained. "Be careful. _Please._"

She ignored him. "I hope you know I made you as soon as I arrived in New York." She said as she stood up, flopping the magazine on her seat.

"We weren't hiding."

She almost jumped when the short, hair man spoke from behind her, a wry grin on his face. He stuffed an unlit cigar in his mouth and smirked at her in evident amusement. "Listen to what the man says. He's worried about you."

"Why? Who are you?"

"Nobody," the thin man said, sadly.

The short one put a hand under his shoulder and helped him stand. "Come on, kid. Let's go outside. I forgot my lighter."

She watched them walk away, beginning to wonder if the one who'd spoken to her was part of the security detail at all. The man with the duffel bag produced a business card and handed it to her. There was a number printed on it, and nothing else.

"My name is Steve Rogers, ma'am. If you need help, don't hesitate to call this number."

"I don't need any help from the American government," she said haughtily, and slipped it in the pocket of her jacket. "If you'll excuse me, I have a plane to catch."

He shrugged and turned to walk away. "Who said anything about the government?"

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

We're still in the 'origin story' phase, here. If you have absolutely no knowledge of Marvel and have no idea who those people in the airport were, don't worry, they'll all be identified when they appear again; I'll do everything I can to make this accessible for someone who likes Eva but has no knowledge of Marvel.

If you _did _recognize them, you're probably wondering "Hey, how come (character x) is here when (eva character y)…" there's an explanation!

Mari's 'origin' will probably be the longest and most drawn out. She's going to be the character who joins the 'old guard' fraternity of established Marvel heroes and becomes our window into that world, while Hikari and Asuka are over in Japan doing Nerv stuff; it all comes together eventually.

I was really amused by how people jumped on the thing with the beer can in the last chapter. We're going to go with the aluminum shortage in a post impact world explanation, I think. You'd think I would know about the steel can thing given how big of an Animal House fan I am.

While writing the flashback, it occurred to me that the average Marvel citizen probably doesn't fully understand things like Galactus or Dormammu, even if they happen to personally witness them, hence Gendo's skepticism here.


	3. Power and Responsibility

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 3: Power and Responsibility

* * *

><p>Outside Alamogordo, New Mexico<p>

1989

Johnny was bored.

He was stuck out here with his sister, while his sister worked on some big project. Normal kids were learning to drive, necking with their girlfriends, that sort of thing, while he was cooped up on some government base studying physics and other boring crap. The worst part was that it was _easy. _He did have some company- among the teenage children of the researchers, Anthony Stark, Jr., the 26 year old bad boy Ph.D son of the man of the same name, only with Senior after it, was the cool older kid who snuck them beer and told them wild stories about college.

He wasn't there today, though. He'd spent an hour cooped up in a government beater with his sister, a long, awkward silence that he was glad to have come to an end as they pulled onto the airstrip. Things had been tense after she left her longtime boyfriend, Reed, following the _accident, _as she called it. There was some foreign scientist coming to join the project, whatever the project actually was, and she insisted on dragging him along to meet them.

The airstrip was an actual airstrip, the kind with just a tower and a long strip of pavement. The small plane actually had a propeller and some men from the army had to wheel up a pair of stairs. As Johnny suspected, the scientist, some guy named Zeppelin, of all things, was a doughy older type, way overdressed for the weather, which was always hot around here.

The heat didn't bother Johnny.

Sue pulled the car to a stop and got out and he followed her glumly, staring off into the distance. She elbowed him as she started greeting the new guy, and he snapped to attention, or something like it. He immediately felt better about being dragged out her. Sue had said nuclear engineer. She hadn't said nuclear engineer with hot daughter.

The girl that emerged from the plane from Doctor Zeppelin was tall, with long graceful legs and an aristocratic bearing. Her creamy skin was an unusual shade that didn't fit in this climate, and her eyes were tilted a little, suggesting Asian ancestry, but she had fiery red hair that trailed down past her waist in a tight braid, so shiny it could be said to gleam.

Johnny made his introduction to her as quickly as she could.

"Hi!" he said, "I'm Johnny Storm. You must be…"

"Kyoko," she said, and then in a slow, German accent, "I am sorry, I do not speak much English."

He scratched his chin. Well, it would take less than that to stop him.

"That's okay, You'll pick it up quick enough, I'm sure. We're all geniuses around here."

She looked at him in mild confusion and her mouth twisted a little, as if she wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh or not. He rushed to open the back door of the car for her while his sister rolled her eyes at him. Kyoko thanked him in German and slid into the seat, and he hurried to make sure he opened the front door for her father, and then slid in next to her. Making a pretense of adjusting the rear view mirror, Sue gave him a hard look.

He winked at her, of course.

"So," he whispered to the girl. "Not much English. Let's practice!"

"Ja," Kyoko nodded.

"Repeat after me. 'Will you go out with me?'"

She eyed him suspiciously. "Will you go out with me?" she repeated. It came out more like _vitz me_, but it was the thought that counted.

"Sure!"

Koyko giggled.

* * *

><p>Japanese Airspace<p>

Present Day

The seat belt light came on, followed by a flight attendant admonishing the passengers to return their seat backs and tray tables to the upright and locked position, in English, Japanese, German, and Spanish. Asuka let out a long sigh and thought desperately of the upcoming opportunity to wash her hair. She closed her eyes and tried her best not to let her stomach lurch as the airplane took its paradoxical landing attitude, leaning backward even as it descended. A few minutes later, she felt the lurch as the rear landing gear touched the landing strip, followed by a lurching sway as the front touched down, and the repugnant meal she'd eaten on the way lurched in her belly, fighting desperately to find its way out the way it came in. She'd decided she hated flying.

The wait to actually exit the plane was interminable. Everyone stood up at once as soon as the warning lights blinked off. She waited patiently until the throng began to move before she stood up, opened her overhead bin, and took her carry-on. The bulk of her possessions, at least the ones she'd brought with her, were being shipped to this Katsuragi woman's apartment. Apparently, the woman held rank in the local military and was Operations Director of this Nerv group, and oversaw the deployment of the weapons systems they were designing. As she walked out of the disembarking tunnel into the terminal, she slipped the woman's photograph out of her pocket. Why the woman had chosen a shot of herself at the beach, bending over in front of the camera, mystified her.

When she walked out of the terminal, past the baggage claim, she spotted the woman standing at the far end, holding a sign marked ASUKA in pink magic marker. Asuka let out a long, ragged sigh, and pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes as she stepped outside into the sun. Katsuragi was illegally parked and flagrantly ignoring the recorded instructions not to park in the white zone. She was dressed in a remarkably ill-fitting uniform that appeared deliberately too small, especially the length of the skirt and the tightness of her black turtleneck.

"You're Katsuragi, I take it," Asuka sighed.

"That's right! You're Asuka, right?"

"No, I go around asking random women if their name is Katsuragi."

She frowned. "Well, you must be tired from your flight. Let me get your bag."

After tossing the sign in through the window of her car, a little blue hatchback, Katsuragi took Asuka's bag, drug it around to the boot, and slid it under the hatch. Meanwhile, Asuka walked around the other side and slid into the passenger's seat. The car smelled of pizza and beer, and she crinkled her nose. The rear deck was covered in food packaging and dirty clothes, so much that it covered the carpeting. This woman was Nerv's operations director? If everyone working for this organization was this absurd, her mission would be completed easily.

With a sort of flounce, Katsuragi dropped into the driver's seat, slapped a pair of sunglasses on her face, and looked at Asuka with a feral grin. "Put your seat belt on."

Slowly, she complied. "Safety first?"

Katsuragi gunned the engine. "Safety first."

* * *

><p>Redding, California<p>

"Are you sure you got my measurements right?" Mari said as she walked across the lab towards the arming station.

She pulled at the suit, a dense black polymer laced with tiny fiber connections that felt like hairs when she ran her hand over them. The undersuit would actually read impulses transmitted along her nerves and transfer them to the suit, allowing it to move with her without a delay. It was a vast improvement over the first few systems her father had designed, where the armor was rendered neutral to the wearer and "pushed" around by his movements. It was really cool, but it also felt a little tight around her hips.

"Jarvis measured you. Jarvis doesn't make mistakes," her father called from behind his desk.

"It feels a little funny."

"It'll ride up with wear," he said, drolly. "Are you ready?"

She stood in the middle of the circular pad, and nodded. He typed out a series of commands and she jumped a little in surprise as the metal pad around her feet unfolded. The boots slid up first, and she stepped forward into them. A pair robotic arms assembled the legs and hips of the suit around her, allowing it to take the load as it clamped the torso sections around her. The arming system reached for her from either side and she slipped her hands into the gauntlets and tugged them home as the armored sleeves clacked into place over her arms. Finally, the helmet slid into place around her head in two sections, linked together, and dropped the faceplate in front of her, bathing her in darkness.

The feeling of the weight of the suit suddenly lifted and she heard the whine of an arc reactor cycling up. The dim view through the two holes in the faceplate blurred dark green and when cycled to life, replaced by a fisheye camera view of the world around her. A series of icons slid from the bottom left of her field of view and settled into place. Jarvis spoke softly in her ear.

"Welcome to your armor suit, Miss Mari. I will be you copilot this evening."

"Very funny," Mari rolled her eyes. The suit anticipated the motion of her head and moved with soft, whirring sounds.

Her father pushed himself back from the desk. "Try walking."

"Okay," she said, and took a step forward. She felt the heavy clomp of the armored boot on the concrete floor, took another step, and the ground rushed up to meet her as her foot slid out from under.

"Ow."

"Relax. My first time was way worse than that. You're trying to manipulate the suit. It moves with you. Stop clomping around like Frankenstein and just walk."

She took a deep breath. "Okay, move naturally, gotcha."

She put her hands down, did a shockingly easy push up, pulled her feet under herself and stood up. She took a few more steps, still a little shakily but without falling this time, and then slowly turned around. There was a mirror on the far shop wall.

Her suit was lighter and sleeker than the ones he'd worn himself, even the most advanced version. It mostly preserved per proportions, so it was decidedly feminine, which was a little weird when paired with the frowning metal face plate. There was only one thing wrong with it.

He'd painted her suit _pink_.

"This is not funny!"

"What's not funny?" he deadpanned.

"I look like a toy!"

"I told you she wouldn't like pink, sir," said Jarvis.

"Fine. We'll repaint it in the standard color scheme," he huffed. "I want you to understand something. This _is_ a toy. You have the standard maneuvering repulsors, and that's it. No onboard weapons. You're not going off and being some kind of superhero. Understood?"

"I guess," she sighed. "Can it fly?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

"Sir," said Jarvis, "don't you think-"

He rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

Still shakily, she walked around behind him and took hold of the handles of his wheelchair and winced when they twisted and groaned under her grip.

"Sorry," she said, sheepishly.

"We'll work on it. Just don't touch anything expensive."

She wheeled him into the big service elevator that carried them up into the garage. He'd sold much of his car collection years ago, now that gasoline was so scarce and he had little use for driving to begin with. The garage was empty except for a mostly nondescript Bentley, a little convertible, and what used to be a Cobra with a very distinctly Iron Man shaped dent rendering it little more than an unusual sculpture.

Dad nodded at the car. "Make sure you know your footing before you cut off the thrusters. Let's go outside."

* * *

><p>Hikari clutched her books to her chest as she quietly walked with purpose towards the classroom. The usual excitement and milling about of the morning was missing today, as the entire student body was still very much in shock over the events yesterday. She hadn't seen much, but they all heard the explosions, watched the dust trickle down from the corners in their concrete bunkers. She wasn't the only student looking around nervously. She noted, as she walked towards room 2-A, that there were a fair number of students missing. Including Toji.<p>

She froze.

Aida was standing around by the door, as if he didn't want to go inside. His camera was missing, as was his friend. Hikari rushed over to him and almost bumped into him. "Aida?"

"Class Rep?"

"Where's Toji?" she said hurriedly. "Was he hurt?"

"No, it's his sister," Aida said, quietly. "A beam or a block of rubble or something fell on them. He was okay, but she broke her leg and hit her head. She hasn't woken up yet."

A ball of ice formed in Hikari's stomach. "She hasn't?"

He shrugged. "I talked to him last night. He's still at the hospital. Their dad is at work."

"T-Thank you," she said, stumbling away from him. She let out a little oof as she turned and walked into someone much larger and more solid than her.

It was the upperclassman from yesterday, the one that she'd shooed away. He leaned over her with a group of his friends. "You little _bitch," _he growled, sotto voce.

"I-"

The upperclassman's expression drifted into panic, and his face began to turn red. He took a step back and his friends grabbed his arms. One of them turned to her. "What the hell?"

Her mouth opened and closed. The boy clawed at his throat, trying to force his fingers under a gold chain he'd been wearing under his shirt. The links had tightened around his throat, pressing on his veins and windpipe, as if someone was standing behind him, twisting it around their fist. He bumped against the lockers, gasping for air, and the other students milling around began to stare. Hikari took a step back, her heart fluttering in her chest. Was she doing that to him somehow?

Then, she saw him. Shinji stood behind the tall boy, his eyes lidded, his lips pressed together in a thin, neutral, expression. The teacher burst out of the classroom with surprising speed, for him, anyway, and said "What is the meaning of this? What's going on out here?"

The pressure on the boy's throat slackened and he took a gasping breath and fell forward a little, held up by his friends on either side, who glared at Hikari as they brushed past. She glanced at the clock on the wall and hurried into the classroom to her seat, brushing past the teacher, who merely looked confused, his look of practiced anger fading into the same sort of dull indifference he always wore as a mask about the classroom.

She dropped into autopilot and began the morning routine. "Stand! Bow! Sit!"

It was worse than she thought. The class was half empty. Aida sat at the back of the room, rapidly typing on his laptop. The other students nervously milled about pulling out their own computers to take notes, or pretend to take notes, at any rate, and Ayanami had already been in her seat, staring out the window at the sun. Hikari wondered how she didn't hurt her eyes. Shinji had abandoned his customary spot behind her and sat on the opposite side of the room, in the corner, his laptop closed. He fidgeted nervously.

Aida banged on his laptop. "Stupid piece of junk! What do you mean, drive read error?"

"Quiet!" Hikari snapped, purely on reflex. He looked a little wounded and slumped down in his seat.

She let out a soft sigh as she turned back to the laptop and started typing out lecture notes, but her heart wasn't really in it.

* * *

><p>Hikari sighed as the bell rang for lunch, stood wearily, and went about gathering up her things. Shinji hurriedly rushed from the back of the classroom out the door, leaving his things in a pile on the desk, opening a distance between himself and Ayanami. Hikari hurriedly shoved her things into her bag, threw it over her shoulder, and went after him, not quite sure why. No one noticed as he headed outside; the students were permitted to eat out on the lawn, of course. When he got to the front doors, they flew open without being touched.<p>

Hikari skidded to a stop, and watched them gently swing shut again, pulled inwards by gas pistons. The doors weren't automatic. She stood there for a moment. She could just let him go. If he was having problems, he had his guardian and Ayanami to deal with them. She should find her friends and have lunch.

It wasn't her problem.

She ran after him.

"Ikari!" she called as she pushed through the doors. She caught a glimpse of him on the edge of the school grounds, running full tilt, his white sneakers flashing in the sun as he ran up the path from the side lot into the trees, away from the school and the city. She ran after him, surprised by her own speed. Without really trying, she crossed the gap in record time and slowed as she reached the understory, careful not to trip over the roots of the trees.

Everything looked weird. As she scanned the foliage around her, she could see where he'd passed, every broken twig and brushed leaf standing out like a signpost; it was like she could focus her eyes everywhere at once. She shook her head and darted forward, easily picking her way over the roots. He was surprisingly fast- he must have had experience running. She slid her bag off her should, jumped, and grabbed the first low hanging branch, kicking her feet to swing her body. From there she easily flipped head over heels and grabbed the next one and pulled herself up against the trunk, and began leaping from tree to tree, covering the ground at incredible speed. Still, he pulled ahead of her. She caught a glimpse of him- his gait was out, as if it was out of time with his actual steps; it seemed like his feet weren't touching the ground.

She took a jump, crouched on a sufficiently thick branch, and pulled her shoes off. Once she'd looped the laces together, she threw them around her neck and went after him in earnest, sticking her hands and feet to the trees as she went. By the time a path opened and he began to follow it, she was actually panting for breath. She dropped onto the dusty dirt path, and her toes dug into the Earth.

He'd finally stopped. He was standing at the edge of a rise overlooking the city, behind the guard rail, a thin wire strung from posts that stood drunkenly, pounded into the Earth. He gestured with his hands and a whole section of it came loose and went tumbling over the edge. He walked to where they'd fallen, looked down for a moment, spread his arms, and fell forward.

She ran. She ran all out, as fast as she could, and she jumped, running on pure instinct. She saw him and her arms were around him, around his waist, and she turned a she fell. She crushed him to her side with one arm and reached out with her other and begged, begged _oh please, oh please let this work._

_Thwip_!

A silvery, thin line of web lanced out from her wrist and splattered against a hanging branch, then with a whip and a thrum went taut. She grabbed onto it for dear life as they swung around through the open air. Shinji screamed in shock and clung to her, burying his head in her shoulder. She put her feet out as she swung towards the cliff face, pistoned her legs against it, and jumped back up. To her surprise, the force of the leap carried them easily up over the edge, and she rolled with it, coughing from the impact. Shinji came to rest on top of her, eyes wide. He scrabbed away from her, saw that he was moving towards the edge of the cliff, and let out a yelp.

She sat up, shaking, and took a breath, clutching her sides with her hands so he wouldn't see her quivering. "What the _hell_ were you doing?"

"I- I wanted to jump," he whimpered, tears streaming down his face. "Why did you stop me?"

"Why would you do that? What's wrong with you?"

"I can't tell you," he shouted, clutching the sides of his head. "I can't tell anyone, they'll put me away. The make me do it and then they tell me to just go to school and act normal, but I _can't! _That Suzahara kid's sister got hurt! It's my fault! _It's all my fault!"_

She stood up and carefully made her way over to him as he spoke, and slipped her hands onto his shoulders. Gingerly, she drew him away from the edge, not looking at the drop.

"It's okay," she said, lamely.

"It's _not_ okay. I don't want to do this anymore!"

"I don't understand," she said as she gently worked him away from the edge. "What do they make you do?"

"The robot," he snapped, "I'm the _pilot."_

She gasped. "_What?"_

He pulled away from her "See? I knew it! They were right. Go ahead, tell me how badly I fucked up. All those people got hurt, the stupid robot got all messed up. I just want to go home."

"It's okay," she said again, with a little more conviction. She put her hands on his upper arms, and he looked at her through the tears streaming down his eyes. "Come over here with me."

She guided him away from the ledge to a rock, and they sat down, leaning against it. He sniffed and rubbed at his nose as she spoke, telling him about the spider bite and the thwip thing and the sticking to walls, and what happened in the shelter.

"That's not your fault," he said quietly when she finished. "It isn't your problem."

"Maybe," she said, resting her head on the rock. "Maybe it happened for a reason. Maybe I was supposed to help them. Maybe I was supposed to stop you from hurting yourself."

"I don't understand," he sniffed. "I don't want to be a pilot. You don't want to be a… spider… girl."

She was quiet for a while. "But we are. We've been given power."

"So?"

"So," she said slowly. "With great power must also come… something, I don't know. I can't just let stuff happen to people if I can do something about it."

He was a little quieter now. He wiped his face with his sleeve. "Make sure no one knows about this."

"Why?" she said.

"They'll take you."

"Who?"

"Nerv. They find people like us, and they take us. Me and Rei are lucky. The other people, they go down into the base, and they don't come out."

Suddenly, the strange sensation she'd felt before overtook Hikari, running down her spine. She sat up abruptly, and looked around. Ayanami walked out of the woods, scanning the path, and walked over to them. Without preamble, she reached down with one hand, grabbed the straps of Hikari's jumper, and hauled her to her feet.

"What are you doing?"

Hikari squirmed and grabbed Ayanami's arm. "Hey, let go of me!"

"You are absent from school without excuse," Rei said calmly. "There is a search for you underway. Some of the students have started a rumor that you are having sex with him. Are you?"

"_What? _No!" she said stridently. Shinji turned beet red, and looked a little hurt. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that, it's just that-"

"Be quiet," Rei snapped. Her eyes seemed a little paler, and her too-pale tongue ran under her lips, caressing her teeth. "You will report to school and make excuse for your absence."

She pushed Hikari away and looked at Shinji. "Why are you crying?"

He looked utterly panicked. "I'm sorry! I was… s-sad about Mom. Hikari just wanted to help me."

Rei eyed him suspiciously. "Return to the school. There is a staff car waiting for us. We are to report to synchronization tests with the new pilot. Go now."

Hurriedly, Shinji ran towards the trees, with a short, pained look at Hikari.

Rei turned back to her. "Do not speak to my brother again. Is that understood?"

Hikari stood her ground. The sensation grew more intense, and she had to resist the urge to itch at her neck. She stared right back into those crimson eyes, and her stomach twitched a little. The red was slowly bleeding to an anemic pink, and Ayanami was clenching her jaw, deliberately. Without a word, she turned and walked back towards the treeline, leaving Hikari alone.

* * *

><p>Mari decided she enjoyed flying.<p>

"This is _great!" _shouted.

The world swung drunkenly beneath her, turning this way and that as the tiny repulsors on her hands and body fired, twisting her to and fro. She felt the thrum of the main thrusters in her armored boots singing to her through the armor, vibrating around her head. She edged up, moving to push upward with her palm repulsors, and looked up at the darkening sky. Suddenly, there was a ping in her ear, and she involuntarily rolled and level out, skimming over the pine trees again.

"Hey! What gives?"

"Mister Stark has instructed me to prevent you from approaching commercial airline traffic," Jarvis said in her ear.

"Fine, no more altitude. Faster! I want to go faster!"

Jarvis sighed. "Then say, 'Maximum burn'."

"Maximum burn!"

There was a jolt and the thrum became a roar, pressing her arms to her sides. She felt the flaps opening and closing on her back as she steadied herself. She rolled and twisted through the air, laughing with maniacal glee as she did, and the suit began to vibrate. Again, the thrusters cut back without a command from her, and Jarvis sighed in her ear.

"What now?"

"This suit is not rated for supersonic flight," Jarvis said, a synthetic note of exasperation in his voice.

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Quite," said Jarvis.

"Dad!" she said, "Hey Dad, can you hear me!"

There was only static on the line.

"Dad?"

"There is an emergency," Jarvis said in an uncharacteristically flat voice. "There are intruders in the mansion. I have detected an explosion."

Her stomach shot up into her throat. "What?" she said weakly.

"We must return immediately."

"_Of course we must return immediately! Punch it!" _

"Supersonic flight restriction lifted," Jarvis said flatly. "Warning: Exceeding speed rating may-"

"Shut up! Maximum burn!"

She rolled and turned back towards home as the thrusters kicked in. She felt like she was standing in an elevator, only much moreso, her feet trying to push up through her legs. The suit shuddered and creaked around her, and a warning icon appeared in her vision. She ignored.

"You have exceeded the maximum rated speed for this unit," said Jarvis. "Speed currently exceeded by one percent. Two percent. Three percent…"

"Shut up!" she snapped, "Stop telling me, just leave it on the screen!"

Jarvis went silent and she dipped low, skimming over the road towards the mansion. As it came into view, she saw smoke trailing up from the roof, and heard a rippling boom. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them away. As she drew near she kicked her feet forward and the flaps auto-deployed, slowing her. She came to a skidding, bounding stop just outside the front door, leaving a deep furrow in the asphalt of the driveway. Suit whirring and clacking, she got on her feet and stomped up into the house.

She heard the distinctive whine of a spooling-up repulsor, felt as much as saw the flash, and a heavily muscled man in a red and black uniform with what looked like a dyed sock over his head rolled down the front steps, the distinctive burn pattern of a repulsor blast centered on his chest. Shockingly, he stood up, feeling around for one of the half dozen guns and knives he had strapped to his body. As she watched, broken ribs jutting from the burn wound on his chest moved and twisted with horrifying popping sounds, sliding back into place. He looked at her.

"Wow," he said in a rapid, clipped voice, "Pink, very pimp. I like. What's the interior look like? Do you have fuzzy dice?"

"Jarvis," she said flatly. "All available power to hand repulsors."

"Yes, ma'am."

She braced herself with one foot behind her, aimed at him, and loosed the blast. He went flying back into the mansion with a cry of _"Ouch, my skin and also my bones!"_

Clenching her fists, she stomped up and into the house, and froze. Crazy head sock man stood behind a massive anti-materiel rifle, propped up on a bipod on the bar in her father's living room. He casually aimed down the barrel without looking down the scope.

"KILLSTREAK!"

He fired the rifle and before she even heard the report she was on her back, pain lancing through her shoulder and upper chest. She rolled to a stop in the suit and tried to move. Her view of the house was overlaid with a schematic of the suit, red lines snaking out from an angry damage marking superimposed over the shoulder joint.

She tried to move, and got nothing but angry whirring sounds, metal grinding on metal, and more warnings. Her vision lurched a little, and she tried hard not to throw up. The man with the big rifle tossed it aside and started moving towards her, and then something out of hell walked up beside him and grabbed him roughly by the shoulder.

He, or it, she wasn't sure, was tall and thin, and dressed in ragged leathers with a hood over its face, which was scaly and yellow. It looked at the gunman with too-large red eyes and hissed, "Let's go, Wilson. We're done here."

It held up a bag. She could see the glow of an arc reactor inside of it. The suit, helpfully, overlaid readings on its function and cyclic rate.

Oh.

Oh no.

She watched the thing in the leather push a button on his belt as he slipped the arc reactor into a bag hanging from his shoulder. With the thrum of a jet turbine, a metallic thing like a bat hovered down in front of them and he stepped onto it, locking his boots in place in two clamps on the wings. He crouched low and started to lift up.

"Hey!" the gunman cried, "What about me?"

"You're on your own," the thing snapped, and then rocketed off, leaving a trail of thick black smoke and a roar behind it.

Mari remained very still. The gunman looked at her.

"Nothing personal, kid," he shrugged. "Business. If you ever want to come after me in a roaring rampage of revenge as a one woman army, you'd look really good in one of those Bruce Lee suits. Toodles."

Without further comment, he loped away towards the treeline.

"Jarvis," she pleaded, "Help. Get me out of this thing."

"Your shoulder," he replied, "it may be-"

"Oh God, just do it. Please!"

A hovering pod emerged from the house, followed a moment later, absurdly, by Dummy, one of the first autonomous robots her father had ever built. It was a crude thing, like the remote units police bomb squads use, basically an arm on a pair of tank treads. It rolled up to her and poked at her side with its gripper, its whirring sounds oddly animated, like a distressed puppy. The Jarvis pod hastily began using an impact drill to open the joints on her armor. Dummy helped her get the helmet off and she gingerly sat up, clutching her wounded arm to her side as they removed the armor plating. With its arm, Dummy supported her back while Jarvis removed the leg apparatus and boots, and finally she threw her good arm over Dummy and they pulled her to her feet.

"Your father is in the basement," said Jarvis. "I have sent a distress call out on all available frequencies. Should I notify the police?"

She thought about that for a moment. "Not yet. I don't want the army or whoever in here all over his stuff. He wouldn't want that."

"Very well."

Gingerly, leaning on the robots the whole way, she made her way down into the elevator. The upper level of the house was a ruin. She could see where they'd chased him inside. He'd dumped his wheelchair and taken his emergency chute into the basement, probably going after a suit of armor. Without the use of his legs, he couldn't get into the Mark IV emergency suit anymore, so he'd have to be armored by the rigging unit. The house's suppressant system had already taken care of the fires.

The doors opened onto the basement and she let out a strangled cry. He lay on the floor near his workstation. Someone, either her father or the attackers, had smashed the interface. She rushed to her father's side as fast as she could and knelt down beside him. His shirt was torn open, and where the arc reactor that kept the shrapnel out of his heart had been, there was only a bloody, rounded metal hole. He had a ragged wound in his gut, probably a gunshot.

"Dad?"

"I didn't want this," he croaked.

It only took a half an hour for them to arrive. She heard foosteps upstairs, and then heavy stomping as something heavy moved across the floor. The elevator went up, and she heard voices talking to Jarvis. The elevator opened, and three men stepped out. The first she knew immediately- Steve Rogers. A friend of her father's, she hadn't seen him in years, but he looked the same, somehow. His friend Nick, the guy with the leather fixation, had been by a few nights before.

Behind them stood a man twice again as large as both of them together. In a trenchcoat, Benjamin Grimm looked like an ambulatory tent, the fabric big enough to engulf a small crowd stretched tight over his dense, rocky body, a deep ochre color. As the group fanned out into the basement he moved with shocking speed to Mari's side, slipped his massive hands, each as big as her torso, under her and gently lifted her up and away from the body. Her father's body.

She started to cry.

"Ben," said Rogers, "get her upstairs."

"Yeah," he rumbled.

He took her away.

* * *

><p>Shinji let out a long sigh, and Akagi immediately piped up in his ear. "Stop moving, you'll just be in there longer."<p>

He continued to focus on this breathing. He'd already been sitting in the plug for an hour, unable to move or even really think as they used him and Rei as controls while they tested the new girl's synch ratio. He spared a glance at the window showing her in the seat of Unit Two, over on the other side of the cage. She sat hunched in her seat, arms folded under her breasts. He realized he was staring at her chest a little and flicked his eyes forward, blushing. She was pretty.

"Okay," Akagi said finally, "that was a quick one. We're done."

With a sigh, he expelled the LCL, the foul tasting liquid that permeated the plug, from his lungs as it receded, waited for the signal, and then climbed out, slipping down the side of the plug onto the metal decking below. The new girl, Asuka, was already out.

"Out of my way," she said brusquely, brushing past him.

She was pretty. She was also rude.

* * *

><p>It was a serious blow.<p>

They'd taken away her role as Class Representative. She'd always dreamed about it, even before she was old enough- her older sister, Kodama, had been Class Rep, and a legendary one at that, the living terror of their school up north, before their father took the job with Nerv and moved them to Tokyo-3. It had been not long after their mother passed away- she always thought they'd maybe given him the job in sympathy; her mother was a Nerv employee, too, at one of the other facilities.

Now, she had to go home and tell Kodama she'd run away in the middle of the day, been severely reprimanded, and stripped of her office. It was like walking to home to announce that some relative had died. She had to stand there and stare at the door for a while before she opened it, stepped inside, and said softly, "I'm home."

Kodama rushed to her immediately and scooped her up in a hug that almost lifted her off the floor and made her drop her bag. Hikari gasped.

"HIkari!" she said, "I was so worried about you? What happened?"

"I… I was…" she couldn't tell her about Shinji, and she remembered what he said, about keeping her changes a secret. "Suzahara's sister got hurt."

Kodama released her. "The boy from the shelter, right, your crush?"

Hikari blushed. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry I was so harsh about that. There was nothing we could do."

"I know."

"It's just that… I lost mom. I can't lose you, too."

She hugged Hikari again, and Hikari hugged her back. Nozomi wandered in from the living room and joined in with a squeal of delight, decidedly unaware of the reason behind all the hugging. Kodama finally released her.

"I'm still mad about the class rep thing, though."

Hikari sighed.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," Hikari shrugged. "After dinner, I have to go drop off some printouts. It's my last official act as Class Representative."

Kodama nodded gravely. "Alright."

Dinner was quiet. Once again, Father had been called in to work late, and it was just the three of them. Nozomi insisted on "helping" Kodama cook while Hikari did her homework at the kitchen table, and she sighed, glad of the normalcy. She hurriedly finished eating, clutched the printouts to her chest, and headed out the door.

Normally she was a little afraid walking the streets at night, but she was beginning to get the hang of this. She kept to the main roads, under the street lamps, and felt that buzzing sensation a few times, but it passed. Finally, she reached the right building and buzzed the apartment labeled Katsuragi, M.

The door clicked open and she headed up the stairs, a little bit of a bounce in her step. She'd heard what Ayanami had said, but Ayanami could bite her. It didn't matter if it was her problem or not, she was going to help him any way she could. She couldn't let someone suffer like that without doing something about it. She knocked on the door.

A stunningly beautiful redhead answered, dressed in a scandalously loose yellow t-shirt and cutoff shorts that were barely worthy of the name. Hikari stood there staring blankly at her for a moment.

"Do I have the right apartment?" she asked, a little shakily. "I'm here to drop off papers for Shinji Ikari."

"This is the place," the redhead said, snatching them from her. "I'll give them to him."

Hikari stood there for a moment.

"Can I help you with something?"

"No," Hikari said softly, and walked away. It was for the best. She had a lot to do.

* * *

><p>It was another long night, and Ritsuko wanted to go home. The harness was chafing her madly, and she was sure she was bleeding again. Maya kept looking at her as if she was going to try to talk her into taking it off, but she didn't want to, not now. It was almost time for her to leave, crawl home, and get four hours of sleep for the next day of insanity. She'd walked in on Gendo this afternoon, sitting in his office, stuffing his face with fun-sized chocolate bars. Normally, she would have laughed at the look on his face, but his behavior had been stranger and stranger lately, and it was starting to worry her.<p>

Then there was the mess at the school. Shinji ran off, Rei threatened some poor girl, and the administration was pestering her about her interest in their students. She managed to dump some paperwork on them that would delay them for a time, but it would only last so long. She let out a sigh.

"Hey," said Maya. "Look at this."

With a huff, Ritsuko rolled her chair over to Maya's station. The girl winced a little when their shoulders touched. Ritsuko shook her head and studied the screen. It looked like an amorphous blob of colors.

"What is this?"

"Forward looking infrared footage from the synch test," said Maya. She pointed to a blob, "That's Shinji. He's normal."

Ritsuko eyed her.

"Normal body temperature," she quickly corrected herself. "This is Asuka."

Ritsuko looked at the footage. The girl was several degrees warmer than the other people in the camera's field of view; in fact, she was running a fever. She should have been in the infirmary in an ice bath. It was amazing she was walking around at all, much less without brain damage.

"She must have the x-gene," Ritsuko said quietly. "She's a mutant, like the others."

Maya nodded. "Watch this."

She queued the footage forward to Asuka bumping Shinji out of her way. When they came into contact, her body temperature immediately dipped, approaching the normal range, until she was several feet away from him, then returned to normal- or normal for her, at any rate.

"That's odd," said Ritsuko. "Good work."

"There's more," Maya said, pulling over a stack of printouts. "You said you wanted me to keep an eye on that magnetic field he's generating?"

"Yes?"

"Well, after they touched, it spiked. Her temperature went down, and the aura around him went up."

Ritsuko looked over the papers herself, then quietly closed the folder.

"Shred this."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it," Ritsuko said, hurriedly. "Does anyone else know about this?"

"No! I didn't tell anyone."

"Good," said Ritsuko. "Let's keep it that way."

* * *

><p>Hikari had to stop and bandage her fingers. She was really, really going to have to get better at sewing. She had to throw part of it away from all the blood on it. In the end, she settled on finishing the mask, which was black and yellow and had little cut outs for her eyes. For the rest, she had a pair of long underwear over which she wore a school swimsuit; she'd carefully removed the name. She made sure her wrists were exposed and double checked to make sure she could cling to the walls with the thin socks she'd chosen to cover her feet and the gloves she picked out for her hands.<p>

She stood in front of the small mirror, propped up at a lazy angle on the remains of her night stand, and admired herself.

Admired probably wasn't the right word.

"I look ridiculous," she muttered.

With a sigh, she pulled the mask off. It left her hair a fright. She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. Was she really going to do this?

"What did I say to him?"

She looked at the mask as if it would answer her. She furrowed her brows, trying to remember.

"With great power…" she trailed off.

In the distance, she heard a police siren. She slid the mask over her face, slid the window open, and crawled out into the night.

* * *

><p>Kozo Fuyutsuki simultaneously cursed and blessed his luck. Had he never become involved in Yui Ikari's life, had he never met Gendo Rokubungi, he would be living a quiet life as a retired professor, if he were alive at all. As it was, he lived a quiet life of dull routine as the Sub-Commander of Nerv, an odd position that mostly entailed doing all of the paperwork that the proper commander wanted to skip. It had its benefits, though. For one, little was expected of him, and he was one of the few members of the organization that regularly got a good night's sleep.<p>

Except tonight, that is. He was rudely awoken by a ringing phone. His small apartment was clean, Spartan, and dominated by books. He regretted that he had no pictures of Yui. His star student and the cause of all of this mess, at least for him, she was also the only really significant thing that had ever happened in his life. When he awoke in the dead of night, thoughts of her always sprung to mind more easily.

Blearily, he sat on the edge of the bed for a moment before picking up his cell phone, an aging model with an actual external antenna that he'd held onto out of pure consternation, much like the other aspects of his life. He put to his ear and pinched his nose, where his skin had been irritated by wearing reading glasses all day.

"Kozo?" a quiet voice whispered.

"Gendo? What is it? Is it an attack?"

Receiving a call from the Commander at this hour, was odd. He glanced at his alarm clock. It was nearly four in the morning. Whatever this was, he hoped it was important, and then cursed himself inwardly, as important would likely mean dangerous. He sighed.

"I can't control it anymore," Gendo whispered, "I need your help. It has to be stopped."

Fuyutsuki straightened. He hadn't heard the man speak to him in anything other than a quiet monotone to dispense an order in years.

"I don't understand, control what? What is it?"

"Nothing," Gendo replied smoothly, his composure suddenly regained. "We're fine."

The line went dead.

With a sigh, he went back to his pillow. Ikari had probably been drinking; God knows, Fuyutsuki had been hitting the bottle more often than he would have liked. He wouldn't begrudge the man his vices.

* * *

><p>Shinji Ikari lay in the darkness, curled on himself. He took long, slow breaths. Most of his day had been a nightmare. After the synch test, he came home to discover that the girl was going to be living with him at Misato's apartment. The only space he considered remotely safe was now occupied by a stranger, and a girl, to boot. The fairer sex was still a mystery to him. Only Rei made any kind of sense, but it was because Rei wasn't normal, but she was predictable.<p>

When he tried to sleep, all he found behind his eyelids was visions of staring green eyes and a spike pounding into his brain. He couldn't even remember what happened, and no one would tell him. He had to get in the simulator again and start working with the new pilot, help her develop the skill and start working with her as a team. Rei still couldn't pilot, her Eva still in cold storage.

Unable to force himself to sleep, he rolled onto his back and glanced at the clock. It was four in the morning, and he would have to get up for school soon. He wanted desperately to sleep, and with every passing moment the actual rest he would get was shortened that much more. He resigned himself to another night without sleep and rolled onto his side, reaching for his beloved S-DAT player. It had belonged to his mother, as had the tape inside. It was the only thing of hers he had, jealously hidden from his father, who'd taken everything else. He was reaching towards his ears with the earbuds when he heard a soft sound.

Stiffening, he listened, and heard it again. Quietly, he crept to his door and pressed his ear to it, and there it was once more, a soft sort of huff. Gingerly, he reached out, until he felt the metal runner at the bottom of the door, where it sat in the track on which it slid to the side. With a gesture, he pulled it open, then, without crossing the hall, did the same for the door opposite his, moving it the way he had the beer can or the links of the chain that morning.

Asuka lay curled in a ball on her bed, her bedclothes twisted around her arms and legs. He could see her face under her wildly tussled hair. Her lips were pressed tightly shut and quivering, and tears glistened on her cheeks. She made the sound again, a small, soft sob, and clutched at her pillow.

"Mama," she whispered.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

Wow, poor Mari. After I wrote that scene I was a little ambivalent about it and wondered whether or not I should go back and replace Deadpool with another mercenary character or dial back on his jokes, but I decided it would be more horrifying from the 'monster clown' angle. Deadpool was a villain in his original incarnation and he _is_ a mercenary, so his inclusion here made sense. The other one who attacked the mansion was the Hobgoblin, a minor Spider-Man villain who I'm fond of who will play a small role in the story. Note, also, that Mari didn't see how Tony was wounded, we don't know for sure which one of them did it...

A note on the beginning, for non Marvel fans- Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman/Girl, and her younger brother Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, make up one half of the superhero quartet The Fantastic Four. I massively reworked the FF's continuity for the back story here, and they never formed a superhero team as such in this world. I felt justified in making the change I did since even in happy continuities where Asuka's mother is still around, her father is a blank slate and simply changing his identity doesn't seem to matter much.

I've said somewhere, maybe in the notes for _LCOK_, that I wanted to write a story that's kinder to Gendo (and isn't in an obvious joke universe). This is it, but he's going to have to earn it.

In this version, Maya is a little more aware of her feelings for her mentor/crush. I mean, Ritsuko literally has big fluffy angel wings, how could she _not_ be more aware of it?

I hope Hikari's development into the Amazing Spider-Girl has sufficient depth. I tried to capture that Marvel feel where she doesn't even think of putting on a mask until Shinji gives her a valid, logical reason to. It's an accepted conceit in DC that as soon as you get your powers you put on a mask, but Marvel characters generally need a reason to both engage in vigilante activities and conceal their identity, and several of the bigger characters don't bother with the latter, or are very cavalier about it. The fact that Shinji knows her secret is there for a reason.

Oh, and the bit where Shinji was running without touching the ground? Magnetic levitation. I don't think he realized he was doing it.

Also, despite the rapidity of the first three updates, I can't say how long the next one will take. This is complicated to write, I have less free time during this time of year, and I don't want to short change _The Riddle of Steel._


	4. Don't Let Me Down

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 4: Don't Let Me Down

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3, Japan<p>

Present Day

Toji awoke in an empty apartment to the bleating sound of his alarm clock, and moaned softly. He sat up and remained there for a full minute before wearily turning the thing off with a slap to the snooze button. He felt a terrible temptation to lay back down and go back to sleep, but he'd made a promise. It was important to his old man that he go back to school. They'd finally released him from maintenance work at Nerv and he could spend some time in the hospital with his sister. He sat on the edge of the bed and groggily stared at the floor for a while before the alarm came back on and turned it off, then sullenly wandered down the short hallway into their tiny bathroom. Higher ups could afford bigger places, but he and his sister and his old man lived in a little box a fair distance from the school.

He showered quickly and looked at himself in the mirror. He had the first hint of fuzzy stubble along the corner of his jaw and felt stupid for feeling so proud of it not long before. He wasn't a man. If he was a man he would have gotten Kanna to safety instead of letting her get hurt. He would have protected people he cared about. Instead, she was half dead and he didn't have a scratch on him. He smeared a little shaving cream on the corner of his jaw and just stood there for a while with the razor pressed to his face, shaking. He closed his eyes to force the tears in, and when he opened them he realized that he'd snapped the handle of the razor clean off. He wiped away the shaving cream expecting a thin line of blood on his cheek, but found nothing.

With a sigh, he brushed his teeth, dried his hair, and pulled on his tracksuit. It was faster than putting on some dumb uniform and he had to get to school. It was a long walk. He made sure the apartment door was locked behind him and walked down the stairs, half-stomping, a knapsack full of uncompleted school assignments and instant food thrown over his shoulder. He nearly reached the bottom when he fell. The stair beneath his left food gave way, simply parted under his step and dumped him onto the ground. He let out a yelp of surprise and lay there for a minute, the urge to just cut loose and start sobbing forcing its way up his spine into the back of his head. Tenderly, he moved his leg, expecting a twisted ankle at best.

He wasn't hurt at all. Lucky.

Slowly, he stood up, leaned on the doorway for a while, and made his way down the front steps, out of the apartment building. They were close to the reconstruction zone and he could vaguely hear the sounds of demolition in the distance, the snorting diesel engines of great machines and the pounding of pile drivers. It was matched by the distant sound of reconstruction, as the downtown area was rebuilt. The robot had knocked a chunk of debris into the park where Kanna hid to get a look at it, and no one even cared, even though the old man worked for Nerv. Not even a sympathy card. He saw a recruiting poster for the organization and he wished he could get his hands around the neck of whoever was responsible for it.

The train ride to school was crowded, and despite his height he blended in easily enough. There were a lot of people like him, staring at the floor, probably thinking about other people. He saw a lot of people in the hospital, young and old, some lucky enough to leave with a few stitches or a bandage and a few who didn't come out at all, their beds were just empty one time when he walked past. He hung onto the strap above his head and stared out the window, until the train leaned into a turn and it snapped in his hand, sending him toppling into the wall. He grunted and stood up with a huff as the passengers around him shot him dirty looks.

When the train stopped at the station, it was still a fair walk to the school, and it was still dark out, but he walked brazenly down the middle of the street, not caring who saw him. He spotted some of the other students in the distance, making their way towards the school. They filtered in the front door and he joined them. He stopped at his locker to put away his things and realized there was someone standing next to him. He slammed the door, and got a few stares.

Horaki stood there, oddly calm, a concerned look on her face. She started to say something and he cut her off.

"I didn't do the stupid papers," he snapped, "and I don't care."

"Oh," she said softly, "I'm not class rep anymore. I was worried about you. Aida said your sister was hurt."

"Yeah," he blushed. Wait, why was he blushing?

Stupid, stupid, stupid Toji. She was just trying to be nice to him and he bit her head off like a big dumb jock. He didn't remember her being so cute, either. Even beneath the shapeless uniform jumper they made the girls wear, he could see the athletic outline of her waist, and he was sure she hadn't had such shapely legs when he saw her last. She looked like she'd been out running for hours a day. He realized he was staring at her legs and blushed _again_, but she tilted her head, oblivious. She'd dropped her pigtails, too, and trimmed her hair short- not as short as Ayanami, but short enough that it was tight against her head when she pulled it into a ponytail.

He started to say something to her and froze. A bombshell walked past her, strutting down the hallway like she owned the place. She was the tallest girl in his grade, maybe in the school, and quite possibly that he'd ever seen, with fiery red hair that hung to her waist in an intricate blanket of small braids. She shot him a disapproving glance as she past and stuck her nose in the air, leaving him standing there staring after her like an idiot.

"I…" he started to say to Horaki, but she was already walking into the classroom, her shoulders fallen.

He followed her with a sigh. Very smooth move, Toji. He spotted Kensuke at the back of the room, fiddling with his laptop. He made his way to the back of the classroom and slipped into the seat beside him, and Kensuke looked at him excitedly.

"Hey, man! I was worried about you. How is she?"

"They don't know," he said, staring off at nothing. "They said she might not walk again."

Kensuke shrank back. "I'm sorry, Toji. I really am."

Toji blew out a breath and leaned against the back wall. "I know, man, I know."

Kensuke was quiet for a while, and then said, "did you see this?"

He turned the laptop around. On the screen was a window open to the newspaper website, which was dominated by a blurred black and white video still of a figure in a mismatched jumpsuit fist-fighting with a tubby guy in a leather jacket and a ski-mask. The caption read _SPIDER-MAN COME TO TOKYO-3?_

Horaki appeared next to him and leaned over Kensuke's computer.

"Spider-_Man?_" she snapped. "That is clearly a girl!"

Kensuke sat up defensively. "What are you talking about? This person has no boobs, and is therefore clearly not a girl."

With a snarl, Horaki stalked off, balled fists at her side, muttering to herself. Toji watched her in confusion until the tall redhead walked into the room and every set of eyes fixed on her. He could practically feel the mixture of admiration, lust, and resentment. It was enough that no one even noticed when the Ikari boy followed Ayanami into the room, head down as usual. He glanced furtively at Horaki, who spotted it and blushed, only for Ayanami to step between them with a glare.

He almost felt it before he heard it, the low growl of the evacuation alarm as it grew into a steady wail. He starte"d to stand up, but he couldn't get his feet under him before the chair under him exploded and he slammed to the ground, dragging the desk with him.

Kensuke stared at him in confusion, and then shoved his laptop into his bag. "Come on, man," he said, "we have to go!"

* * *

><p>Mari sat in the lab in her bathrobe, flicking through photograph after photograph on the screen. "Okay, Jarvis, tell me what we know."<p>

She felt a pang when the image of the gunman in the head-sock flashed on screen, and blinked away a tear. Jarvis had a dozen pictures of him, all masked, wearing a dozen different guns and bladed weapons, even an RPG.

"Wade Wilson," said Jarvis, "Alias Deadpool. Mercenary for hire. Mentally unstable, associated with the Canadian Weapon program."

"Weapon program?"

"An attempt to reproduce or exceed the benefits of Erskine's Super Soldier treatment," Jarvis explained. "Wilson and several others have been granted an increased healing factor, derived from the genetic material of the mutant Logan, alias Wolverine, currently a Shield operative."

"So he can't be hurt," said Mari.

"He can indeed be hurt," said Jarvis, "but he possesses a superhuman resistance to injury and recovery speed that essentially renders injuring him pointless. He has literally been dismembered on several occasions, and resurfaced later. The constant regeneration effect, combined with cancerous tumors, has damaged his mental state."

"What about the other guy," said Mari, "the gruesome one with the funny bat plane thing."

"The Hobgoblin," said Jarvis, bringing up the image. "the first Hobgoblin was fashion magnate Roderick Kingsley. Kingsley co-opted equipment used by Norman Osborn in his alias as the Green Goblin. Unlike Osborn, Kingsley never used the Goblin Formula, and so maintained his mental stability."

"Where is he now?"

"Deceased," said Jarvis. "The Hobgoblin alias has been used by at least five known criminals, often passed or sold from one to the other at various times. There have, on occasions, been multiple Hobgoblins active simultaneously, and at least one Hobgoblin also used the alias Jack O'Lantern, with a similar modus operandii, while acting as the Hobgoblin."

Mari sat back in the chair and tapped a pen to her lip. "So, the Hobgoblin could be anybody. That means Wilson is our best lead, doesn't it?"

"Indeed," said Jarvis. "Unfortunately, he is quite insane. He tends to complete contracts once accepted, but for every time he takes normal, traceable methods of payment, he insists on being paid in television memorabilia or Taco Bell coupons. There may be no records connecting him to the broader conspiracy behind the attack on the mansion, and it is entirely possible he no longer even remembers it."

Mari sighed in frustration. "So that's it? There's nothing I can do?"

"We have a visitor," said Jarvis.

"Show me."

The main screen switched to a view of the front door. Standing in a crisp uniform with a great deal of ribbons and ropey things and other army decorations was Brigadier General James Rhodes. Mari was a little surprised. She hadn't seen the man since she was a little girl.

"Let him in," she said as she jogged over to the stairs and headed up.

She met him in the foyer. There was no point in the door lock, really, since there was still a plywood patch over the main entrance and the wall that had been blown out, but Rhodes was the sort to knock before entering.

"Mari," he said as he stepped inside, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," she said a little thickly. "What can I do for you? I mean, I-"

"I just wanted to stop by and check on you. I know I haven't talked to your dad in a long time, but I wanted to do a little more than just stop at the funeral."

"Oh," she said, "come in, then. I don't really have food or anything. I've been eating out of boxes."

He smiled sadly as he looked around, surveying the damage. He put his hat on one of the tables.

"Jarvis?" he said.

"Colonel," said Jarvis.

"I'm a general now."

"Ah," said Jarvis, "my apologies."

"That's okay," he chuckled. "I haven't seen this place this bad since me and Tony got into that little dustoff."

"Indeed," said Jarvis.

"Dustoff?" said Mari.

He smiled. "We got into a fistfight. He thought he was dying and got drunk at a birthday party."

"Oh."

"We were both wearing Iron Man suits at the time," he added.

"Oh," Mari said, recognition dawning. "Really?"

"What happened to his stuff?"

She sat down on the couch and looked at her feet. "Shield took everything, all the security stuff, too, and they messed around with Jarvis. They said they'd let me know if they found anything."

"They won't," Rhodes said, a little heat in his voice. "They tend to be a little reluctant to bring in outsiders on their work."

She sighed. "I don't know what to do. I have to meet with some guys from Stark Industries next week. I'm the majority shareholder now, and there's the funeral, and I… I want to do something. I want to find the people that did this."

"I know. You're going to do fine. You've got your dad's brains and your mom's common sense, that's for sure. You got her looks, too."

"I get that a lot," she said as she pulled off her glasses to wipe at her eyes. "I don't even know where to start."

"That's the other reason why I'm here," he said as he reached into his uniform coat.

He handed her a thumb drive. She turned it around in her fingers. "What is this?"

"It's nothing, and you didn't get it from me, because I wasn't here. We're not going to see each other until the funeral, and you barely remember me, right?"

Her eyes widened. "Right."

"Right," he said. "I'm not saying goodbye and walking out the door right now. I will see you around, though. Good luck, kid."

* * *

><p>Asuka looked down at herself in the mirror and admired the way the "plug suit" clung to her physique, although she was somewhat annoyed that she would have to wear it in front of other people. As she walked she felt the way it squeezed her hips and the not so subtle way it highlighted her chest and wondered if there wasn't an ulterior motive in her design. It also wasn't fireproof, which could have been quite problematic. She hadn't mentioned that, and hoped that it would never come up.<p>

As she left the locker room she passed the Ayanami girl, who stared at her with something that could almost be called hunger. Asuka was not easily unnerved but there was something off about the so-called First Child, with her pale skin, silvery hair, and her unnatural crimson eyes that she could swear changed color from time to time, fading to a soft pink, as if the blood had been drawn out of her. Ayanami passed her without a word, to change into her own plug suit, which was for some reason more modest than her own, possibly because it was some sort of prototype.

The technicians in their orange jumpsuits pointedly looked away from her as she made her way along the catwalk to Unit Two, which stood chest deep in a coppery-smelling substance called LCL, which could be electrolyzed and oxygenated as part of the life-support system. The operations director- the loud-mouthed drunkard she lived with, who metamorphosed into someone who appeared competent, quite to Asuka's surprise-had explained her role in this mission. As it was her first sortie, she would provide backup to the Ikari boy, while the Ayanami girl waited in case her Evangelion had to be activated, which would require an emergency- it had been damaged somehow, but no further details had been provided. She made mental note of all of this, ready to send her report to von Doom when her contact arrived.

The cockpit of the machine was unorthodox. It was situated in a large, cylindrical apparatus mostly taken up by computers and the life support system, which they called the "entry plug". Inside was a simple seat with a featureless control yoke and a padded section that closed over her legs to hold her in place. She surmised that the function of the yoke was primarily mental, as she could somehow feel the machine when it activated through clips she had stuck through her hair. Once she was inside, cold, foul smelling LCL filtered into the plug, eventually flooding it. By now, she had learned to simply taken a great lungful of it all at once. Thankfully, when the process began, it was almost immediately warmed by a small electric current to a comfortable temperature. She didn't risk warming it herself.

Once the connection was established, she could actually feel what was going on outside in addition to the display in front of her- even the air currents flowing over sensors in the armor plating. The red titan was hers, and she liked it- it was as if they'd painted the thing to her taste without even being asked. There was a warm, familiar sense of belonging to it, as if she was meant to be in this place. It took a small amount of her mental discipline not to simply sit back and luxuriate in it. Instead, she willed the machine to take stomping, jarring steps to the pad where she would be launched after it locked her into place, huge clamps sliding over the Evangelion's arms to hold it against the launch rail.

She took a deep breath of foul tasting liquid before she heard the signal and the Evangelion rocketed skyward, along a track that took her up and out of the Geofront cavern and into daylight that stung her eyes. In the distance, she saw Unit One, the horned, purple "test type" rising from a similar launcher, its head rising as if at attention when it came to a stop. Immediately she stepped away from the launch pad as the clamps released and headed, as they had been training her, to an arming system hidden within the façade of a plain-looking skyscraper. The Evangelion stepped with ease over the streets below, and she took up an oddly named "palette rifle", which fired mass-reactive explosive shells the size of small automobiles.

As she had been trained, she scanned for the so-called angel. This creature was radically different from its predecessor, which according to the footage they'd showed her had limited flight capability. This one never touched the earth, despite a lack of any apparent source of propulsion or lift. It resembled a blending of a serpent and some sort of enormous insect, its long, segmented armored body covered with tiny, wriggling legs that hung uselessly beneath it. Its defining feature, other than its pointed, armored head, was a pair of glowing tentacles that stretched out behind it as it moved.

She snapped behind an armored building, rested the weapon on it to steady her aim, and opened fire. A series of explosions rippled across the creature's body, and with a curious, warbling cry, it turned to her, picking up speed as it did. A section of armor stood in front of it and its whips lanced out, neatly quartering it into huge triangles that slid to the earth in a cloud of dust. She fired again, peppering the creature with bursts clouds of shrapnel, to little, if any, effect.

The sudden realization overwhelmed her, as she understood that this was not going to be as easy as she'd been told.

* * *

><p>Hikari took up a position last in line as they filed into the school shelter, a smaller, less comfortable bunker than the one they'd taken refuge in during the last attack. The class representative, a stocky girl Hikari hadn't talked to that much in the past, was ticking names off a list as they filtered inside. She looked around and realized there was someone missing.<p>

"Hey," she said to the new rep, "Where's Aida and Suzahara?"

"I sent them to the bathroom," the girl said, annoyed. "Please, go into the shelter, Horaki."

"The bathroom?" said Hikari. "Are you kidding me? I'm going to check on them."

"Hey!" the rep called, "Wait!"

She ignored her and headed up out of the basement. She curled her hand into a fist and rapped on the door to the boy's room, and after there was no answer, kicked it open. It swung into empty air, and the line of urinals was empty, the stalls devoid of feet. With a huff, she stalked away from the bathroom, ignoring the growing intensity of the buzz in the back of her head.

She headed towards the front of the school. She knew the emergency was still in effect, and worried a little about her own family, but Kodama wouldn't let them go anywhere but the shelter. When she stopped at the door, her jaw dropped. She'd never imagined that the angels would look so real, so _alive._ The thing moved with a sinuous grace as it snaked around a red robot, as big as ungainly as the other one, the purple one, which was running over to it. Hikari felt a pang of sympathy for the pilot of the machine as it futilely emptied its rifle into the creature's belly, to no effect at all.

The Evangelion grappled with the angel, twisted, and slammed itself to the ground, carrying the creature with it. Smoke snaked up from where two long, thin arms that looked like they were made of light itself touched the armor, leaving long scorch marks. When the whips moved, they picked up speed and grew brighter, leaving trails in her vision, like she'd looked into the sun itself.

She spotted Toji and the Aida boy, filming the scene with his damn camera, and rushed towards them, the buzzing in her neck so intense it almost hurt. She grabbed Aida and shook him, yanking the camera out of his hands.

"What's wrong with you? You could be killed! We need to get inside!"

"That's what I said!" Toji snapped, "I couldn't let him come out here by himself!"

Hikari groaned. "You idiots! Come on, let's get inside! Quickly!"

The feeling in her neck lanced into her, hurt so hard she felt it in her chest, and she gasped. As she turned she saw the angel yank the Evangelion into the sky and throw it, just throw it just like that, toss it into the air with ridiculous ease. It turned its attentions on the other one but Hikari didn't see it. She screamed and tried to pull them away, but Toji didn't move, he just didn't move, like he was planted to the ground. He cried out himself and grabbed her and Aida both and covered her with his body, pulling them to the ground. Aida screamed, high pitched and frantic, like a little girl, and she watched the machine blot the sun and come sailing towards them. It landed beside them in a crash, throwing up clumps of earth and grass, and with ponderous slowness its arm came down, then its hand, right on top of them, and darkness covered her.

She breathed in, and felt cold, the scent of earth in her nostrils. With a great mechanical whirr and the grinding of servos and armor plates the Evangelion rose. The hand lifted up and planted down in the ground, palm down, digging a crater as it pushed itself to its feet and charged away, each step shaking the ground like a miniature earthquake.

Hikari let out a slow, deep breath. Toji stood up slowly. The jacket of his track suit was in tatters, as was his undershirt, but he was unharmed, without even a scratch. He looked down and shouted in alarm. His legs had sunk into the ground to his knees, and where his hands had fallen were deep furrows in the earth, which had left his hands covered in soil and grime. He sat down in the huge palm print and sat there for a moment, staring at his hands as if they were strange to him.

"What is this?" he whispered, "What's happening to me?"

* * *

><p>Shinji was screaming, he was screaming and he couldn't stop. It was hurting her, it was hurting Asuka, and he had to stop it. It had taken her umbilical, taken the power from the machine that protected her, and he hated it. He felt his rage surge through him, felt it crawl up his spine and tear its way out through his mouth, force his jaws open in a cry of fury even as he tried to bite down on it, wanted to grab it and twist it with his neck until it ruptured. Unit Two was in dire straits. It had charged back into battle to peel the angel off of him and now felt the full force of its fury. It had her pinned down, the burning cords of its whips that still burned his arms and chest wrapped around her neck, and through the comm system he could hear her gurgling cry of agony as it choked the life from her.<p>

He came up behind the angel and dragged it away but it wouldn't let go, and her screams grew higher in pitch and intensity, for the angel did not release Unit Two's throat, and by extension, hers. She was trying to say something in a language he didn't understand, but he didn't need to know the words. He use Unit One's first to gather the whips up, drawing them around his palm, biting his own lip to bite through the pain as it burned him, and with his other hand he took hold of the whips and pulled until the whips snapped and it was the angel's turn to scream. It let out a long, mournful cry and turned to him, head-butting with its mass, and behind it Unit Two went silent, its batteries spent.

He drew the progressive knife from over his shoulder and jumped into the angel. As he shouldered it through the armament building behind it the structure collapsed, bathing them both in dust. It wriggled under him and lashed his body with its own, trying to force the Evangelion away, and he clamped down on it, putting it into a hold with the Eva's legs. He raised the knife and struck, the shudder rolling up the Eva's arms and into his body as the vibrating blade ripped into the shining red cove in the beast's belly. He raised it and lowered it again, over and over, pounding it into the angel's body, and he heard Misato screaming at him and the sounds of other people talking and even Rei whispering at him insistently but he kept bring it up and down over and over again until he realized she was saying, "It's dead! It's _dead! Stop!" _

The knife fell to the earth with a great crash and he sat there for a moment, his Evangelion straddling the beast's corpse, panting. He rolled off of it and crashed onto his back, and darkness swept up from within him, pulled itself over his eyes, and took him into sleep.

He awoke to the plain white of the infirmary ceiling. He felt tender when he moved, and when he lifted his hands over his face they were wrapped in thick bandages, with only his thumbs protruding. He sighed and let them fall to his side, and it was not until he heard soft breathing beside him that he realized he was not alone.

Asuka sat next to the bed. A bandage was wound around her neck and around her arms under her loose hospital gown, and around her right hand. Her blue eyes fixed on him, surprisingly cold for one so fiery. She didn't speak for a time, and when she finally did, her voice was hoarse and rough.

"You have saved my life. I owe you a debt."

He was so shocked he said nothing as she stood up, shrugged on a bathrobe, and walked out of the room, her hair nearly glowing in the gloom of the half-light. It must have been after dark, when the lights were lowered. He closed his eyes and fought hard to find his way back to sleep, only for it to evade him.

* * *

><p>Ryoji Kaji dialed the phone number, and waited patiently for the series of clicks as the voice-over-internet-protocol connection jumped from proxy to proxy, hiding his true location. When Gendo Ikari answered, he slid his voice modifier over the handset of the phone.<p>

"Did you receive the package?" he said calmly, allowing the changer to shift his voice into a gravelly drawl.

"Yes," said Ikari. "We have another job for you, if you are prepared to accept it."

"No," he said softly, looking around. He was alone at the tables outside the café. "I wasn't told that Wilson would be there, and that a child would be in danger. You said that Stark wouldn't even be home. I'm a thief, not a murderer."

"We are prepared to pay well."

He disconnected the call with a press of the end button. He pulled the voice changer free, and slipped it into his pocket, then reached over and nonchalantly dropped the phone into a cast iron wastebasket near the little fence that marked the boundary of the café. He waited patiently until the girl arrived.

She wore a long yellow dress and had her hair bound up under a wide brimmed hat, as if she was in some sort of spy movie and as if having red hair in Tokyo-3 wouldn't make her stand out if she stuffed it into a hat. He smiled at her in what she no doubt thought was recognition but was in fact contempt as she sat down, opened a makeup compact to blatantly look behind her for anyone that may have been tracking her and turned to the waitress.

"A cup of espresso for myself and the gentleman, and a biscotti for me," she said, a little louder than necessary.

The woman gave her a strange look as she went to put the order in.

"You should have ordered a biscotti for me, too," said Kaji, finishing up the code.

With a huff, she reached into her purse, pulled out a small envelope, and slid it across the table to him. He took it without ceremony, creased it around the drive inside, and slipped it into his pocket, making it look as if he'd reached inside to pull out a cigarette.

"How do you find Tokyo-3?"

"Lawless and boring. I would like to go home soon."

"Well, we'll see," he shrugged.

When the coffee arrived, she took a sip of it, grimaced, and then slid the biscotti over to him. "You can have it."

He was happy to see her leave, as the expression goes, but perfectly glad to watch her go. After a while he stood up, left a tip and the payment, and sauntered out onto the pavement. He decided he'd take a walk, take in the sights. The downtown area was still closed off after the angel attack, but he was free to wander the business district, such as it was. He was admiring a selection of fine suit coats when he bumped into someone.

He turned and smiled instinctively, putting on his best sloppy grin, setting his whole body to a sort of rakish tilt, ready to seduce. A beautiful woman with coal black hair and a military bearing face him, and he found his eyes drawn to her impressive bust and the shapely sway of her hips. Then, the more rational parts of his brain began to draw in some blood flow and he realized how much trouble he was in.

"You," Misato said, angrily.

* * *

><p>Toji made explanation when they arrived at the shelter, told the class rep he'd snuck outside for a peek and fallen in the mud, hence his hands. After he cleaned up a bit, he noticed that the Horaki girl had slipped off, and his heart sank a little. He stood in the bathroom leaning over the sink when the emergency ended, staring at himself in the mirror. He didn't look or feel different. The mirror had cracked when the giant robot landed outside, as if there'd been an earthquake. He tapped a piece with his fingers and it fell out with a soft tinkling sound. Slowly, he picked it up between his fingers, placed the point against his cheek, and drew it down. His eyes widened as tiny bits of glass, like a child's craft glitter, poured down his cheek like tear. When he wiped it away, there was no blood, no mark, not even a scratch.<p>

He took a step back and another until he hit the far wall, and then he sank down until he was seated on the cold bathroom floor, and tears blurred his vision. He rubbed at his eyes. It wasn't fair. If something happened to him, if he'd been changed somehow, why him? He should be the one broken in the bed, not his little sister. She should have been out there right then, climbing around in the playground, running with her friends, not lying there broken in a bed, not even able to wake up.

Kensuke sat down next to him. "Hey."

He didn't say anything. He just sat there, staring at his knees. Kensuke sat beside him for a while in silence and then said, "They called school for the rest of the day. Maybe we should go home."

"No," he said. "I'm showering in the gym, and then I'm going to the hospital."

"Okay," Kensuke said softly. "Let me know if anything changes."

"Yeah," he said thickly as he stood up. "I will."

* * *

><p>As Ritsuko brought the first report on the latest sortie into Gendo's office, she had an unusal feeling of being watched. He sat casually in his chair, his usually neatly trimmed beard a little longer than usual, the beginnings of a moustache forming across his lip. He looked as if he hadn't slept in a long time, and he was idly fingering the sleeves of his jacket as she approached and set the file on his desk.<p>

Before she had a chance to speak, he slid a copy of the day's newspaper across his desk to her. She picked it up, quickly skimmed the article, and put it back down on the desk.

"You don't think that's Peter Parker, do you?"

"That is _not_ the Parker," Gendo said strenuously. "Our contacts with Shield report he is still at Los Alamos with the Storm woman. We want this person found, immediately."

She blinked. "I'll see what I can do."

"Very good."

She lingered for a moment.

"What?"

"Nothing," she shrugged.

As she walked out of the office, she passed Essex. He'd crawled out of his subterranean lair, no doubt to commiserate with Gendo. As the representative on base of the Human Instrumentality Committee, he outranked her considerably. It made him no less creepy. He brushed against her, seemingly on purpose, and she winced when his hand touched the tender part of her shoulder where the harness holding her wings in place.

"Doctor Akagi," he drawled, drawing closer to her. "I was hoping I would run into you. I have a variety of reports on the function of the Evangelions' biologics to share. Perhaps we could go over them over dinner this evening?"

She glanced back at Gendo, who didn't react in the slightest, then at Essex. "Just send them by courier. I have too much work to do."

Essex shrugged and walked into the room, making no effort to conceal it as he turned at the waist to stare at her ass as she went through the door. She hurried out of his line of sight as fast as she could, gasping. When she arrived at the lab, she slammed the door shut, locked it, and slid a chair up under the doorknob.

"What is it?" said Maya.

"Essex. God, he freaks me out."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Help me, get this goddamn thing off me."

Hurriedly, Maya helped her pull off her lab coat, and she winced as she did. Then it was a simple matter of undoing the straps and lettering her wings flop free. She let out a sigh of relief as the pressure was let off, but her shoulders still ached. Maya set about bandaging the little cuts around the joints where the wings emerged from her back and on her shoulders, and she gasped as the antiseptic stung her.

"You can't keep doing this," said Maya. "It's getting worse."

"I know. I wish I could get rid of them. I've tried. "

Maya paled. "Really?"

"Yes. I spent a month in the hospital after I tried cutting them off when I was high school. My mother almost went bankrupt paying off the doctors, keeping it a secret."

"Why? They don't look that bad," Maya said guardedly.

"She always hated them, said they made me different, and she's right. I'm lucky some freak like Essex isn't dissecting me right now. I just wish they'd go away."

"It's too bad you can't just, you know, have them," said Maya.

Ritsuko laughed bitterly. "You don't know what's it's like to be different."

Maya looked at her sadly and touched the edge of her wing, just barely brushing a feather with her fingertips.

"Yeah," she whispered, "I guess not."

* * *

><p>"Okay, Jarvis," Mari said as she handed Dummy the thumb drive. "Dad did say not to trust anyone, so I want you to run everything you can on this, make sure there's no viruses or anything."<p>

"Yes, Ma'am," Jarvis replied. He brought up a video feed on the main screen. "There has been another attack in Japan."

"Where?"

"Tokyo-3 once again, Miss Mari."

She leaned back in the chair and pulled her lip down with her finger. "The same place, both times. I thought Nerv said these things could show up anywhere?"

"That is what they announced at the press junket after the first attack, yes."

"Show me everything you've got on Nerv while you're checking over the thumb drive."

An image appeared on the screen of a severe looking man with a chinstrap beard and a taste for dark clothing. To Mari, he looked a little depressed, trying to look menacing and doing a fairly good job at it. "Who's that?"

"Gendo Ikari, supreme commander, answers directly to the United Nations. Lived in the United States briefly with his wife, Yui Ikari, now deceased. Son, Shinji Ikari."

An image of this Shinji appeared on screen.

"He's kind of cute," said Mari.

"I am not one to judge, miss," said Jarvis.

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "No, I doubt Dad taught you how to do that. These personnel files are cool and all, but tell me about their robots."

For that, Jarvis had only distant, blurry stills. "Approximarily two hundred feet tall, humanoid in shape, structure suggests reinforcement other than standard metals and composites. Nerv began purchasing large quantities of adamantium several years ago, but not enough to significantly protect a machine of this size."

"What are those things trailing out the back of them?"

"They appear to be a power source."

"Wait," Mari sat up. "The giant robots have to be _plugged in?"_

"So it would seem."

She drummed her fingers on the desk. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I am afraid I am not following you."

"They run on an external power supply, right? What happens if it's cut?"

"Most likely, there are supplementary backup batteries."

"Right," said Mari, "but if the batteries can keep it going a long time, what's the point of the cord? Especially if these battles are so short? They're like a few minutes, right?"

"Indeed. This implies that the batteries are not a sufficient solution on their own."

"Meaning…" Mari trailed off.

Jarvis was quiet for a time. She could practically feel him thinking beneath her feet.

"Meaning," said Mari, "that they would be looking for…"

"…an alternate power source."

"Jesus," said Mari. "Do you think it was them? This Nerv wanted an arc reactor?"

Jarvis thrummed in thought for a moment. "A Japanese heavy industrial concern made an offer for an exclusive contract to construct a number of compact arc reactors last year," said Jarvis, "but your father rejected them."

"How many?

"Fifteen in all. They would rely on the same principle as your father's chest reactor but would be significantly larger, with an exponentially increased output. It is possible the concern was acting as a front group for Nerv."

"Holy shit," said Mari. "Holy shit."

"I have finished analyzing the thumb drive," said Jarvis.

"Yeah?"

"General Rhodes has prepared for you a selection of documents that are classified, taken from air force intelligence. I recommend they be destroyed after-"

"Whatever," she snapped, "what _are _they?"

"Proof that Nerv has been moving around large sums of currency. An employee at the state department was nearly fired after suggesting…" he trailed off.

"What?"

"After suggesting that Nerv was engaging in a money laundering scheme involving coupons for Taco Bell."

"You have got to be kidding me," said Mari.

"I assure you, I am not."

"Well," said Mari. "I think we're going to find out if I'm big in Japan."

* * *

><p>Misato was clenching her fists so hard her knuckles turned white when she walked into the apartment, not even bothering with announcing her arrival. She kicked her shoes off by the door and stalked into the kitchen, hastily unbuttoning her uniform as she went. She pulled a beer, cracked it open, and touched the bottom of the can to her forehead to cool herself before taking a long pull. First the battle, and then running into Kaji had fairly well cemented the ruining of her day, and it was entirely likely it would get worse.<p>

Shinji was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at his bandaged hands. He just sat there, staring into space. She took another drink and sat down next to him, but didn't say anything for a while. She wanted to just let him get used to presence for a time. When she thought she'd been there for a minute or two, she rested a hand on his arm, and she flinched.

"Shinji," she said softly, "you disobeyed my orders."

He winced, but she went on. "You did the right thing. You may have saved Asuka's life."

"I couldn't even hear you," he whispered. "I just wanted to hurt it."

Slowly, he stood up. "Can I go for a walk?"

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes," he said, "I just want some air. Is that okay?"

She nodded vigorously. It wouldn't hurt to let him have some space, and she had no idea when Asuka would be home- she was already out exploring the city. They two rarely spoke, and Misato had to fight impulses constantly to try to get them to do a little more than glance furtively at each other. It would be nice if the two halves of her functional pilot corps actually talked to one another once in a while.

* * *

><p>There was one advantage to all of this. When she needed some air, as she did now, she could go for a swing. It was awkward at first, and she had to work her way to the center of the city to find tall enough buildings to actually swing <em>from<em>, which was more than a little awkward. It was as simple as shooting a web at something over her head and jumping with it, letting her momentum carry her far enough to catch the next hold and keep going. What amazed her most of all was how normal it seemed after just a few days- it was like she wasn't afraid of heights anymore, even when she was so high it made the cars beneath her look like little bars of soap.

Today, it was growing late and school had been cancelled after the attack. She was still angry at herself for running away after the battle, but she was afraid for Shinji- she was pretty sure he was the pilot of the purple robot. By the time she dared get close enough, they'd already taken it down, but they were in the middle of the city, the part they'd cordoned off with police and fire trucks, picking apart the corpse of the thing they'd killed, hauling it away in big pieces on flatbed trucks. She swung up to the corner of a building overlooking the work and hung from the wall, watching them for a while. The Nerv men in orange jumpsuits looked tiny from up here, carting away quivering sections of flesh from the… from the _thing_.

It was so unnatural, that's what bothered her most. It was like it had parts from living things, but they were wrong somehow, as in the disturbing drawings of artists who don't quite understand anatomy and proportion. She shivered, and decided that without getting closer, she wasn't going to see anything else here, so she turned, tossed a line out towards one of the other buildings, and went for a swing, letting it pay out long enough to drop some altitude.

She dropped down onto a bus with a thud and crouched on the roof, letting it carry her along until she was relatively close to the Katsuragi apartment. When she was relatively close, she stood and sprinted for the front of the bus and took a leap, giving herself enough momentum to get into the swing again, and she couldn't resist whooping for joy. It didn't take her long to find him- she was surprised to spot Shinji walking down the sidewalk, hands hanging at his sides like he didn't know what to do with him.

She followed him for a while, keeping pace with a series of lazy swings over his head, sometimes pulling ahead, sometimes falling back. He walked without any apparent destination, and amazed her by the sheer fact that he never looked up. He never really raised his gaze above his feet, for that matter. She waited until they were fairly far away from the apartment before she swung down and clung to the wall beside him.

He let out a yelp of shock and jumped back, and she couldn't help but giggle at him. She looked up and down the street to make sure no one was looking, then pulled up her mask to show her face.

"Don't do that!" he said, hurriedly. "What are you doing? Are you crazy? What if they find you?"

"Oh, I'm just hanging around."

He blinked at her. "Huh?"

She sighed. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. Was that you today? In the robot?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Your hands," she dropped to the pavement. "Are you hurt?"

"It's like a sunburn," he shrugged. "They said it would go away in a few days."

She blinked. "How did that happen? Aren't you, like, inside the robot?"

"When it gets hurt, it hurts me, too. It's how it works."

"That's awful," she drew nearer to him. "Thank you."

It was his turn to blink in surprise. "What?"

"Thank you," she repeated. "You stopped that monster. You saved us. I was outside of the shelters. I saw it."

He blushed. "Oh. I, I mean, I didn't- it was…" he trailed off. "I'm not a hero, miss Hora…" trailed off and looked around, "uh, Spider-Girl."

"You can call me Hikari," she chided, "uh… when I'm not wearing the mask and stuff."

His phone rang, and he fumbled for it, awkwardly holding it in his wrapped hands, forced to work it with his exposed thumbs. He had to bend forward a little and use both hands to get up to his ear. He mumbled an apology and some agreements and hung up.

"That was Miss Misato. I have to go back to the apartment now," he sighed.

"Okay," she sighed. "You have to?"

"Yes. She wants me to eat dinner with Asuka."

"The girl with the red hair?"

"Yes. She pilots Unit Two."

"The red one?"

"Yeah," he rubbed at his neck with his lobstered hand. "I don't think she likes me very much. She doesn't talk to me."

"She seems kind of stuck up," Hikari shrugged.

"Don't tell anyone, but I saw her crying the other night. She sleeps across the hall from me."

Hikari rubbed at her chin, beneath her mask. "Really? I can't see someone like her crying."

"Yeah," he said, "she said something about her mother, but she didn't wake up. It scared me a little."

"You sound worried," Hikari said guardedly.

"She's like us," he looked around quickly, lowering his voice. "She has a power. I can tell."

"You can?"

"I can feel it. It's hard to describe. I just can. I really have to go now."

"Okay," Hikari said sadly. "I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"I think so." He said, and turned to walk away.

She worked her way back up the building, and perched at the corner of the roof, watched him for a while before swinging off for home.

* * *

><p>Dealing with these insufferable people was enough, but being forced to sit and have a banal conversation over a banal meal of foul tasting instant sludge was almost more than Asuka could take, and most of all, the damnable food wasn't even hot enough. When the Ikari boy walked in, he sullenly took a spot at the table, looking like a helpless puppy when he tried to paw at his chopsticks with his bandaged hands. His look of defeat would have been amusing had it not been so pitiable.<p>

"Hold still," she snapped.

She picked up a scoop of the foul tasting instant food and offered it to him, and he craned forward and accepted it, after which she offered him another, and another, and then held the cup of water for him to drink, which was no doubt welcome considering the amount of foul tasting spices the Katsuragi woman had dumped into their food, most likely to mask the flavor of decidedly conflicting packaged meals she'd mixed up into a great glob in a sauce pot.

She realized that Misato was smiling wistfully at her and froze. She met her gaze levelly, and then as the wheels turned in her head, realized why she was looking at them like that. Asuka was feeding him.

Angrily, she slammed the stupid sticks down to the table and stood up, then stomped into her tiny bedroom, trying to ignore the woman's raucous laughter. She slammed the door and dropped onto the floor, trying her hardest to breath deeply and control herself. Her neck and hand still stung, which only aggravated her more. When she held up her right hand, a thin nimbus of flame had formed around her fingertips, and her heart leapt into her throat. If she lost control here…

"A-Asuka?"

"What?" she snapped, trying to hide the tension in her voice.

"C-can I come in?"

She clenched her fist, trying to hide the flame, only for it to smolder around her knuckles, as though her hand were a coal. She put her other hand over it, only for it to spread to her limb, slowly working its way up her arm. Heat shimmered around her.

Slowly, Shinji slid the door open.

"No," she said, hurriedly, "get out, get _out, _you'll…"

He ignored her, a distant look on his face, and slowly crouched beside her, and then rested his hand on her arm. She expected his skin to peel and crack, the fat beneath to sizzle away from the bone, but neither happened. The flame simply ceased to be, and she felt a strange coolness surge through her, followed by a profound sense of relief. She relaxed and almost fell onto her futon, breathing hard.

"How did you do that?"

"Is that what it is?" he whispered, "the fire? Is that what you do?"

"Yes," she said, guardedly. "How did you stop it?"

"I don't know," he said, his whisper cracking with nervousness. "I don't know. It doesn't work that way on anyone else, I just…"

"What else can you do?" she whispered, a quiet smile creeping across her lips.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes<p>

I'd like to throw this out here: I don't dislike Rei. I actually like her quite a bit, and I am guilty of the supreme heresy of neutrality in the great war of Red vs Blue. I think either pairing, or no pairing at all, can work depending on the writing. I know she comes off as a little rough so far, but she's carrying a terrible burden and it makes her a little nasty. I have a character arc planned for her but it's a slow burner. We'll be learning a bit more about her in Chapter 5...

As to who will end up with who, it wouldn'tbme Marvel without a love octagon, but I'm writing this without shipper goggles. If there's any shipping at all, it will be something that grows organically out of the story, although it's pretty clear at this point that Hikari has a crush on Shinji. Of course, Toji likes her but doesn't know it and he's too stupid not to stare at Asuka's ass when she walks by when Hikari is like _right there_, and Asuka may very well like Shinji a little, but has no idea how to express it...

On the other hand, if you were wondering, yes, Maya is gay, totally gay for Ritsuko.

Toji's power isn't directly copied from any pre-existing Marvel character. The accidentally smashing stuff comes from an ability to "root" himself to a specific spot, so that he can't be moved, and he has invulnerability. That's it, no speed, strength, or other powers, he just can't be crushed or moved.

A note on the character's ages. It's kind of nebulous exactly how old everyone is, but the kids are all a little older, especially Mari, who has been old enough to drive for a couple of years, and will be able to take control of Tony's assets directly rather than in trust as a minor.

That hammer is still out there, but at this point, none of these people is worthy of picking it up. I wonder who it will be...


	5. Big in Japan

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 5: Big in Japan

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3, Japan<p>

2005

Naoko Akagi frowned. She had always hated Yui Ikari, and the thought of coordinating the rescue operation to pull her out of the test-type Evangelion unit displeased her greatly. She felt no small measure of guilt at the thought when she realized she had a perfect opportunity to simply leave the stuck up bitch to her fate. She didn't deserve Gendo Ikari, who was far more of a man than the drunken idiot that had sired her own daughter. It would be so simple.

Alas, so simple.

She moved from station to station in the command center. The room was a mess of wires; this operation hadn't been anticipated, and the level of work she'd put into cobbling together the systems that would retrieve Yui's corporeal form from the depths of the Evangelion's core was monumental, the final product, a work of art. She would draw from the Magi system she'd created unprecedented levels of performance. It would exceed a human brain, and her creation would write a program that in turn write a better program than she could write. She had essentially invented the technological singularity for this project, and what recognition did she get? Orders barked at her to pull that insufferable woman out of the machine that killed her as a result of her own mistakes.

Could she be blamed for being bitter?

She caught a glimpse of herself in the glass separating the control room from the dismembered monster outside. Her breasts had begun to sag and there was gray in her hair, and crows feet around her eyes. She had never been satisfied with herself after her pregnancy, and to add insult to injury, she'd birthed a freak, as much a mockery of an angel as the thing outside. Gendo pointedly ignored her until she tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yes?"

She felt an odd, slick sensation when she'd touched him, and found herself staring at his lapel. Something about his dress unnerved her, though she couldn't say what; he wore the uniform as he always did, deliberately unbuttoned to show his disdain for authority, hidden under a labcoat. He turned to her, the coat hanging unnaturally still, as if it were too heavy. At least his son wasn't peeking out from under it today. She wasn't a monster. No boy needed to see this.

She'd only made a few modifications to the program. No one would be able to say it was anything but a mistake. A tragic mistake that prevented Yui's recovery. She would simply comfort a grieving man. If it grew into more, well, better things had been born of greater tragedies.

"I will oversee the operation directly," she said, smiling. He suspected nothing, she was sure.

She buttoned her labcoat and walked out into the lab. The chilled LCL stank of blood and she breathed through her nose to keep the stench out of her nostrils, and clutched the coat to herself for warmth. She surveyed the final assembly of the extraction equipment and offered a thumbs up to the control room. It was time to turn it on.

The lights dimmed as the current thrummed through the LCL in the entry plug, heating and exciting it. The theory suggested that the discorporate Yui, reduced to primordial slime in the plug, could use the Evangelion's unique abilities and the surge of current to reassemble herself. As long as her mind continued on within the fluid, she would be able to resume her form and simply emerge. The lights flickered as the operation came to an end.

"There is a body in the plug," Gendo's voice boomed through the loudspeakers. "You did it."

That wasn't right.

She rushed up to the back of the creature's neck and began the process to extract the plug. It slid out of the creature's back and bounced a little as it came to rest, the ratcheting brakes on the track locking it into place. She undid the clamps on the door and pulled it open, ignoring cries from the technicians to wait.

Yui sat up in the plug, her skin turned chalk white, her lovely hair bleached almost white, tinged with a curious blue sheen. She was as naked as the day she was born, and moved without any apparent modesty, no need to cover herself. She twisted sinuously in the seat and looked at Naoko with eyes that were pure white save for tiny, constricted pupils.

"Yui?" Naoko whispered.

In reply, the thing in the plug hissed and sprang up and onto her. The weight of it shoved her to the cold metal floor and she screamed in pain. An orange suited technician tried to pull the chalk skinned thing away from her but it twisted, grabbed him by the jaw, and jerked its hand. With a sound like a rupturing handful of celery, his head bent around at a wrong angle and he went limp. It looked down at her and opened its mouth too wide, baring a pair of fangs.

Naoko screamed again and tried to wriggle away, but it was too strong. It put one hand on her chest and shoved her down and put the other hand on her forehead, forcing her chin away from her neck, bent low, and sank its teeth into her throat. Her screams turned into a pained gurgle as the thing gnawed into her throat and it reared up and hissed in almost sexual triumph, its eyes suddenly a deep, dark crimson. It fixed its gaze on the control room.

"Darling," it said.

Naoko never heard it.

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3, Japan<p>

Present Day

It took all of her control.

When other people walked in a crowd, they saw potential strangers, obstacles, potential sexual partners, people whose modes of dress and ways of carrying themselves suggested that they may have something in common. They displayed a number of signals to one another to indicate interest of lack thereof, threaded their way through a shockingly complex language of subtle movements and tiny gestures. It was not that Rei did not understand them, that she did not grasp the secret language. It fascinated her.

The problem was that when Rei looked at the crowd, all she saw was food, and she hated it.

She paused in her walk to check her eyes. She was becoming drawn again, she could feel it. It was like ice water in her veins, and when it came on her, the sun _hurt_, the very light burned her, made her skin ache as if she'd been slapped. Her eyes were a light pink, which meant danger, meant she was almost out of control. Unless she replenished herself soon, she would lose control, and if she lost control, they would take her to the machines again, and they would hurt her.

She didn't want to hurt the Suzahara boy, but he was there, and he was alone. He walked toward the train he would take to school with his hands thrust in his pockets, head down, staring at the ground as if it was about to answer some important question in his life. It made him convenient; his family probably had few connections within Nerv, his father likely worked a menial task, and so they were relegated to the residential district not far from the isolated apartment in the reconstruction zone that had been chosen for Rei.

She felt sorry for him when he turned and took a shortcut in the alley between two tenement blocks. It meant it was his time. She felt it, felt the animal pulse in her veins pushing her forward, the need, like someone pulling on her teeth. She stalked behind him, light on her feet, pushed herself up and crawled along the top of the dumpster, and then pounced. It was better to come in from behind, so they didn't see. She wouldn't drain him. He would wake up in a few hours with a dull headache and an unexplained memory gap.

It was supposed to be, anyway. It was like she was scraping her teeth on steel. She yelped in surprise and rolled onto her side, shocked that he remained standing. He stared at her as if she'd sprouted a second head, his mouth open wide.

"A-Ayanami? What the hell are you doing?"

"I-"

A long black limousine pulled to the end of the alley, and she jumped to her feet. Three men got out, and she saw the shock collar at the end of the long pole in one of their hands. She turned, but it was too late; they'd blocked the other end as well.

"Ayanami? What's happening?"

She tried to run, but she didn't get far. The tranquilizer dart sprouted from her belly like a flower, and she felt a wave of tiredness flow through her, cold and heavy. She sank to her knees and tried to stand and fell onto her side, wheezing, and the light burned, burned her eyes and she felt her pupils contract, try to squeeze it all out. Suzahara knelt beside her.

"Ayanami?"

"Back off, kid," one of the agents barked. "This isn't your business. Move on."

"But-"

He looked down at her.

"I didn't mean to," she whispered, and passed out.

* * *

><p>"It's not as if I want to waste my time with more of your inane schooling," Asuka said imperiously, "but I fail to see why I am required to participate in this."<p>

Misato let out a slow breath between her lips and eyed the girl seated beside her, who managed to say the most arrogant things at the drop of a hat, without the slightest hint of apparent irony. At least she wasn't mocking her driving skills this time. Poor Shinji was stuffed in the back of the car, in the folding jump seat. No one told her she was going to be carting a bunch of kids around when she bought the thing, after all. For his part, he remained silent, impassively staring out the window.

"This is my life," Misato muttered.

"What?"

She shrugged. "Two Evas are better than one. A berserk Eva can be dangerous."

"I don't understand how you can lose control of a machine," Asuka snapped.

"A very complicated machine, and Unit Zero has been… buggy."

"Then why use it?"

"We need everything we can get," Misato said as she wheeled into the car lift that would carry them into the Geofront. "You know how dangerous these things can be."

"I was caught off guard. I won't allow it to happen again."

"I'm sure you won't," said Misato.

* * *

><p>Ritsuko put the phone to her ear. "Will we be able to continue with the test?" said Gendo.<p>

Ritsuko pinched the bridge of her nose and fought the urge to shrug, which would only make the harness chafe more. She was really, really going to have to take some time off after this. "I'm not sure. We're trying the treatment, but if it doesn't take this time, we'll have to put her in a new body."

"It has only been three weeks."

"I know, but we can't afford another accident. It's getting worse."

"Noted," said Gendo. "We trust you will perform adequately."

Then, of course, he hung up.

She turned to the table. Rei had been stripped while under the effects of the tranquilizer and was held down with heavy leather and nylon straps across her shoulders, forehead, belly and legs, as well as bonds around her ankles and wrists that would prevent her from more than slight movement of her limbs. Gingerly, Ritsuko slipped on a pair of exam gloves and carefully pulled open her left eye, observing the color. It had turned a deep crimson, which meant the transfusion was working, and she was absorbing the plasma. She let the eye drift shut and took a step back with a shudder. The Section 2 men said that the boy she'd accosted was unhurt, which was pure luck. They were, in fact, lucky she hadn't killed anyone.

"Rei? Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Rei whispered. "Did I do it again?"

"You tried. You didn't hurt this one."

"That is good."

"Do you think I can let you up?"

"I am afraid."

She swallowed. "Why?"

"It comes upon me more and more. There was a girl the day after the first attack. She was talking to Shinji. I wanted to hurt her."

Great, now she had to be a psychoanalyst. "Why?"

"She touched him, and I could smell it on him. He wanted more from her."

"Rei," Ritsuko said flatly, "we discussed this. Shinji isn't for you to… interact with that way. It would hurt him."

"I do not want to hurt him."

"That's good, Rei. He respects you. Treats you like a sister."

"I am not his sister. I am not like him. I am not like you. I am not like _her." _

Ritsuko let that one drop. She had been instructed not to pursue the cryptic references to someone Rei wouldn't name, and she had absolutely no desire to find out what she meant. Her job was to take care of the science and keep her alive and not committing murderous rampages.

"How do you feel now?"

The girl blinked. Her irises had resumed their normal bright crimson. She let out a deep sigh, and visibly relaxed. "I think I am safe now."

"I hope so."

"I will have to pilot it again," she whispered.

"Yes," said Ritsuko. "I'm sorry, but you must."

"It does not like me."

"It's just a machine, Rei,"

"That is not true. It hates us. You, most of all."

She shuddered. "We're going to run the tests. I'm going to have to let you up. Let me know if you feel like you might lose control, so I can tranquilize you."

"I will. It doesn't matter. I only wish for this to end. I only wish for _me_ to end."

* * *

><p>When Toji got to school, he desperately wanted to find that little shit Ikari and get some answers out of him. He knew the little twerp was tied up in this somehow. He and Ayanami always disappeared together, snuck around, even during the attacks. He would know what the <em>hell<em> she was doing, why those men came and took her away. He looked around the classroom and didn't find who he was looking for. Horaki found him instead.

"Toji?" she whispered, appearing beside him. "You look upset."

He sucked in a deep breath, tried to keep his cool. It wasn't her fault. "I'm just having a bad day."

She tensed up. "Is it your sister? Is she…"

"She hasn't woken up yet, but the doctors told my dad she has a fifty-fifty chance. He made me come to school today."

"That's awful," she said, resting a hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," he said, his voice a little thicker than he would have liked. "Nothing makes any sense anymore."

"Um," she said.

"Uh," he said.

"Have you seen that Shinji kid anywhere? I wanted to ask him something."

She blushed a little, and a weird smile came over her face, like she was trying not to show another emotion. "Not today," she chirped. "I guess he's absent. That's not really my concern anymore, I guess."

"Oh," said Toji.

He found Kensuke fiddling with his damned laptop _again_. He had the thing turned over and was messing around in its guts, poking at some sort of connector doo-dad with his pen. He looked up at Toji as if he had a great deal of difficulty tearing himself away from his work, but felt like it was worth it.

"How is she?"

"The same. Docs say she has a chance."

"Rough," said Kensuke.

"Yeah. Let me ask you something."

"Shoot," said Kensuke, turning back to whatever it was he was doing.

"You ever notice that Ayanami and that Shinji kid are absent together a lot?"

Kensuke sat up, looked, and leaned closer to Toji, then said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Yeah. Do you think they're, you know, doing it?"

Toji sank into his desk and put both hands on his face. "I really, really hope not. Thanks for the image."

"You don't think so?"

He shook his head again.

"Good," said Kensuke, "I think she's hot. It's the hair, man. She's got blue hair, and her skin is like porcelain. I want to touch her so bad."

"Dude," said Toji, "that is the creepiest thing I've heard from you, like, this week. What is wrong with you?"

"Why must you condemn my love?"

Toji thunked his head against the back wall and let out a sigh. It was best not to encourage him. He finally satisfied himself with whatever he was doing with the computer, flipped it over, and turned it on.

"What the hell are you doing, anyway?"

"I want to access the outside Internet from school," he shrugged.

"You can do that?"

"I'm good with computers," said Kensuke. "You should see some of the stuff I have at home."

Toji narrowed his eyes. "You're not building some kind of dungeon, are you?"

Kensuke legitimately looked hurt. "I wouldn't choose that word, no."

"Why do you want the outside 'net in here?"

"I've been talking to these babes on the internet," he grinned. "Three of them."

"Bullshit," Toji said, the heat gone from his voice. "What are their names?"

"Babs, Cassie, and Millie," he grinned. "Like, all at the same time, too. They said they want to meet me but they can't right now."

Toji leaned closer, sweeping his gaze back and forth to make sure no one was paying attention to him. No one seemed to care that neither of them had done the stand-bow-sit routine, and the teacher was droning on about something utterly unconnected to their math class, to do with the post-Impact wars. He asked that most important of questions.

"They sent you pictures?"

"Cassie did," Kensuke whispered. He brought it up in a small window at the corner of the screen, just big enough for Toji to see. The woman in the photograph was wearing an evening gown that flattered her impressive curves very nicely, and her skin was flawless. She had a short mop of brown hair and wore thick red lipstick, and she had a mole on her cheek, just under her chin.

"That sort of looks like that babe scientist from the field trip," said Toji. "You think that's her?"

"Nah," said Kensuke. "She doesn't dye her hair."

Toji raised an eyebrow. "How old does she think you are?"

"I told her I was twenty-seven," said Kensuke. "They think I'm working on a computer science degree at the tech school in the city."

"You ass," said Toji. "That's kind of rude, leading them on like that."

"What? They're the ones that would get in trouble. Besides, man, _boobs. _They have _boobs."_

"Don't say it like that," said Toji, "it's weird."

Kensuke glanced Horaki. "It's not my fault you prefer flat chests."

Horaki glared over her shoulder at him.

"Dude," Toji said hastily, blushing, "Shut _up."_

Horaki turned around in a huff and refocused her attention on the lesson, ignoring Toji completely.

* * *

><p>Shinji climbed up the metal stairs to the plug, the sounds of his heels on the diamond-patterned steel like tiny bells in the vastness of the Eva cage. Beside him the Evangelion stood chest deep in the LCL. He would be tasked with moving it through the drained cage to the containment unit where Unit Zero had been moved after the accident, a few days before his arrival. Slipping into the plug felt like working his way into a coffin. He slid down the curved side, carefully pulled himself into the seat, and locked the controls down over his waist, securing himself in place. When the foul smelling liquid, cold and blood red, flooded the chamber, he reflexively held his face out of it until the last moment. He had done a little better lately about taking the first gulping breath, but it was still like ice water flowing into his lungs, the sting bringing tears to his eyes.<p>

It only took a few moments for the liquid to warm when the power current to the Evangelion activated. That, at least, made it more comfortable, although it still stung a bit when he began breathing the thick fluid in and out. In a few moments more it would thin enough to be almost like air, but the feeling of it working in and out of his lungs was revolting. When the synchronization came, bursting through in a flash of colors, he saw the far gantry where Rei was preparing to board Unit Zero and begin the experiment.

His father was there.

Just seeing the man made his skin crawl. It always reminded him of the dream, of the cracks in the glass, of black blood sliding across the icy chips in the window while his mother was dying. Seeing Rei smile at him made it even worse. Rei smiled for no one. He forced himself to turn his attention elsewhere. Asuka was arguing animatedly with Misato, until she finally huffed, turned in a flash of red hair, and made her way up towards her own entry plug. He sighed as he watched her make her way up to the plug, and realized he was blushing. A girl like her would never be interested in him, no matter what he did.

Also, her butt was incredible. She must have done a lot of squats or something. He blushed at the thought and looked away, though she couldn't see him. He let out a long sigh that bubbled the fluid in front of his face and leaned his head back, letting the soothing warmth of the plug flow through him. Despite his wish to avoid fighting so desperately, something about being here felt familiar, felt like home.

* * *

><p>Maya rushed into the lab, a frightened look on her face, clutching something to her chest. Ritsuko stood up and looked at her, confused. "What's wrong?"<p>

"I have to show you something," she said quickly, rushing to the bank of computers at the far end of the lab. She hurriedly typed her password and shoved a thumb drive into the terminal.

"What is it? I have to get up to the control center for the test, Maya."

"You sent me down to drop of the preliminaries for the test at Essex' lab, right? He wasn't there, so I snatched some stuff."

Ritsuko paled. "Oh my God, what did you do? Are you out of your mind?"

"He'll never know it's gone," said Maya. "I've already gone into the Magi and erased my entries to the system. He won't see any flags."

"Well, what is it?"

"I have to go through it," she whispered, motioning for Ritsuko to come closer, "but all I have so far is a list of names. I think I can identify some of the people he's holding down there."

Ritsuko scanned the list quickly, scrolling through it with the mouse wheel. "I recognize some of these people. Charles Xavier? Isn't he some mutant rights activist from the United States?"

"I don't know," Maya shrugged. "Does this help?"

"It's incredible," said Ritsuko. "I've wanted to know what he's doing down there for months. We might finally get some answers. I could kiss you."

Maya stiffened and stared at her for a moment. "Um," she said.

"I was kidding," Ritsuko deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

"Oh," Maya said. "Do you recognize any other names?"

"Hm," said Ritsuko, tapping the screen with her finger. "Bruce Banner. Where have I heard that before? Get this out of here. We'll look at it outside of work. I have to get up to the test."

"Okay," Maya sighed.

"Yes, yes," Ritsuko dismissed her, shrugging on her labcoat. "Let's go, we have work to do."

* * *

><p>Misato always felt nervous during things like this, as if her presence was bad luck. If everything went well, she would have very little to do, seeing as her role there was to take command of the combat operation if Unit Zero went out of control again, now that there were two Evas on standby to restrain it. She fought the urge to tap her foot. She was in company. Ritsuko Akagi was there, and the Commander, gazing dispassionately through the cracked glass at Unit Zero, his face a mask of indifference. Beside him stood Nathanial Essex, the head of the genetic development project that was a sort of annex to Project E, exploring something that involved a lot of big words that were outside of Misato's particular realm of understanding. Essex, she understood perfectly. She'd had plenty of professors in her college days who would eye her up and down, as if they wanted to memorize every curve, because they knew they could get away with it.<p>

Ritsuko coughed, and her assistant squeaked in alarm, a tiny sound that reminded Misato vaguely of a frightened mouse.

"We're ready," the scientist announced. "I'm putting Rei on the speakers."

The Commander clenched his hands and nodded. Misato quirked an eyebrow. When had he switched to black gloves? She shook her head and turned back to the task at hand. Unit Zero was hunched against the far wall, is if it was trying to scrabble up the side of the huge chamber, away from the thick layer of hardened, plasticky Bakelite that held it in place. At a typed command, a special fluid sprayed onto the Bakelite, softening it enough for the Eva to move.

"Rei?" said Ritsuko.

"Yes?"

"We're beginning synchronization. Report if you feel anything out of the ordinary."

"Yes."

The technicians all around her prattled at each other in science-speak, but Misato ignored them and gazed out at the Evangelion. She didn't have the heart to tell the pilots what dwelled within the machines, the pumping artificial muscles, the _flesh_, but she knew as she gazed out into the single eye of the titan before her that something ancient and terrible gazed back, resentful of their attempts to tame it, and it had already made its feelings clear once. The hastily repaired observation deck on which they stood made that clear enough. She didn't trust it.

The head moved, and she choked a cry in her throat, biting on it so it couldn't escape her. Ikari glanced at her, but said nothing, and she noticed that in the interim he'd switched back to white gloves. That was a little weird. That was more than a little weird.

"Rei?" said Ritsuko.

"All systems nominal."

With a great roar, Unit Zero stood up, the Bakelite tearing to shreds around it as it moved, clattering to the floor in long, crystalline strips. The sound was not the Evangelion itself, but its prison collapsing and falling away. Zero took a few steps towards the observation deck and stood stock still, like a statue, in the center of the test chamber. Misato let out a sigh of relief.

"All systems nominal," said Ritsuko. "No feedback on the connections. Synchronization is stable. How do you feel, Rei?"

"Acceptable," said Rei.

Then, of course, the alarm went off.

* * *

><p>Hikari felt it before the alarm went off, the dull buzz in the back of her head she was beginning to associate with something bad on its way towards her. She sat up as straight as a rod in her desk and looked around, focusing her attention when the buzz grew the strongest, out the window. She thought she saw something glimmer in the distance, but she wasn't sure. She reached forward and tapped the Class Rep on the shoulder.<p>

"Hey?

"What?" the girl snapped, not turning.

"The alarm is about to go off. You should-"

Before the sentence escaped her mouth, the evacuation alarm sounded, the piercing whine making the windows shudder. She stood up and started moving, even before the Class Rep did, calling for the students to line up. She was afraid she would have to drag Toji and Kensuke into line, but they got in of their own accord, and she took up the rear, trying to look small. As the students filtered through the school towards the shelter, a pall fell over them, an eerie silence.

They all heard it, the keening, mechanical cry of the thing coming to kill them all. A girl from another class started to cry.

Hikari didn't. She waited until her class was filtering into the shelter doors at the rear of the school and slipped off to her locker, where she kept what she needed stuffed in a second knapsack she'd smuggled inside her first one. Thinking of no better place, she slipped into the girl's locker room to change. She was going to have to work on that. It took her a full five minutes to get into the bulky suit, and pulling her swimsuit on over the long underwear was a bit of a pain, and involved hopping around on one foot.

Once she was dressed, she pushed the window open, dropped onto the lawn, and sprinted towards the city. The more she ran the easier it seemed to be, so that she could dart along on the balls of her feet, barely touching the ground, it seemed. Once she was actually in the city proper it was a simple matter of taking a running leap to build up enough momentum to pull herself skyward on a tiny sliver of silver, skimming over the empty streets below. The ground rumbled around her as the majority of the city's buildings began to slide downwards, in the very center. Then, she saw it.

It wasn't what she expected. The angel was a great floating cubeish thing –she failed to find the right word for the eight-sided solid, stupid geometry- and had no apparent moving parts. It seemed more like a mechanical thing than a living creature, its only similarity to the others the red core, made black by its mass, hidden within the depths of its form. As she came to rest at the corner of a building she had the sudden and profound realization that being out here was incredibly stupid, and she wondered what the hell had gotten into her.

She felt a sudden buzz in her head and jumped, decided that altitude was a bad idea right now, and went low, dropping into an alleyway between two buildings. She felt like an actual spider, tiny and defenseless, as the shape of the purple giant emerged from the earth, gleaming brilliantly in the sun. It took a bounding step forward, and the danger-sense hit Hikari so hard she almost passed out.

The angel screamed, it screamed like it was in pain, and shattered in to a hundred thousand, a million swirling shards, clanking and clattering against each other. With a single metallic sound it reformed into a long wedge, and at the tip of the structure nearest the robot it welled with power that made the buzzing intensify, so that even when she was used to it, it still hurt. She ducked behind a dumpster and squinted to sea.

The beam lanced out at the robot –at Shinji- and he ducked it, sweeping to the side, cowering behind one of the slab-sided armor plates that remained standing when the city went into defensive mode. The angel simply unmade the armor plate, burned through it so that looked as if it had been melted in an oven, a crater bubbling through it so that the beam took the robot in the chest.

"_Shinji!" _ she screamed, impotent terror surging through her body. There was nothing she could do, no way to help him. She wished she'd just gone to the damn shelter. She didn't want to see this.

Then, the red Eva came.

* * *

><p>Asuka kept her face a grim mask as she fought the forces, blunted by the chemical bath as they were, that shoved her towards the ground. All she knew was that Shinji was down, his Eva was being destroyed, and the primary weapon of the enemy was a beam of intense, focused heat.<p>

She had a debt to repay.

When she arrived, the angel took no apparent notice of her, leaving her to wonder, briefly, how its targeting system worked. It appeared mechanical in nature, and she had no choice but to realize that she had very little actual knowledge of these creatures, if they were creatures at all. She would rectify that in due time, however, for now was the time of battle and she felt the calm focus she'd learned through years of rigorous discipline settle on her.

She was beginning to become used to synchronizing with the machine, and as she urged it forward she thought less of it as a thing that she piloted and more as an extension of her own body. With considerable deftness, she crossed the open space between herself and Unit One, scooped it up, and stepped out of the beam. A wave of heat passed through her, and she saw the fluid around her bubble, as if on the verge of boiling, but she felt quite cool.

It brought a smile to her lips. Heat held no fear for her.

Unfortunately, the same was not true for the machine that she piloted. When the beam swept into her, she felt something she'd never felt before- burning. Not her own, but that of the body of the machine. She understood that parts of it were biological, as the fluidic properties of living tissue would make it easier, if properly supported, to move something of this size and withstand the strain, but the idea of it feeling pain was alien to her; she'd more sensed injuries in the last battle than anything else, even if it left her sore.

This hurt. It _hurt._

"Asuka!" Misato cried, "Get down one of the shafts! They're all open! _Go for it!" _

She did.

* * *

><p>Shinji blinked his eyes open and gazed up at the ceiling, his head pounding. He felt as if he'd been in a sauna too long, which was apt. He was relatively sure the LCL was about to boil when he felt Unit Two crash into him and push him out of the beam. He'd lost consciousness then, the cushioning of the liquid not enough to prevent him from blacking out. When he awoke, he swept his hazed vision about the room until it settled on what he perceived as a mass of red and white, which resolved into Asuka, dressed in a hospital gown.<p>

"I have repaid my debt. You saved my life, and I saved yours. There is no further obligation between us."

He lay there for a moment, stunned. What the hell was she talking about?

"Are you… are you okay?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Did it hurt you?"

She seemed genuinely surprised at his question. "You… what? No. The heat did me no harm. The sympathetic injuries will heal in a few hours. These idiot doctors think I have a fever, but I do not."

He nodded weakly. "I'm glad you're okay."

She stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.

"Why? If my weakness allows me to fail, it is none of your concern."

"Yes it is," Shinji said, more firmly than he expected. He was a little surprised at himself, and he blushed.

She tilted her head and considered him. "I fail to see why."

"Because you're a pilot, like me, and you're… different, like me," he dropped into a whisper, "and because I should. It's the right thing to do, right?"

She stood up. "You're strange."

He slumped back into the bed. "Okay, I guess."

He didn't hear her leave, he just knew the room felt a little colder.

* * *

><p>When Hikari heard the blast she knew it had nothing to do with the angel, since, for one, it was too small, and it was followed by the ringing of a burglar alarm. She felt only a vague, distant sensation of danger as well, far from the monumental one she felt from the thing now digging into the city. She was astonished. Were they going to just let it sit there, drilling into the Geofront? What did it want, anyway? If it was here to destroy them, why wasn't it doing it? No one was stopping it!<p>

A column of smoke on the outskirts of the city made more sense, so she headed that way. She saw its origin, like the roof of a bush, in the smashed out window of a storefront in the financial district. She dropped onto a mailbox, crouching so her hands and feet touched it, and gasped.

Some sort of a thing walked out of the store, a bag over his, or its, shoulder. It wore ragged cloths, mostly leather, a dark tunic over a lighter bodysuit, complete with high topped boots and thick leather gauntlets. Around its neck hung a satchel, and if it wasn't wearing a mask, its face was a leathery, yellow visage of some sort of storybook monster. It looked at her with bulging red eyes and said, "Seriously? _Now?"_

"Uh," said Hikari, "stop, thief."

"Look, kid," the creature rasped as it tied off the sack to some sort of glider, a rocket with a bat's head and little wings, "I don't want to do this, you don't want to do this. I'm not hurting anybody. It's a jewelry store. They have plenty of money. If you want to do the hero thing, stick to thugs with baseball bats before you bite off something more than you can chew."

She kind of sat there for a minute mulling that over.

"So," said the thief, "what are you going to do?"

"Whatever a spider can," said Hikari.

"Fine," he sighed. He reached into his satchel and threw a pumpkin at her.

Then, the pumpkin exploded.

She jumped just in time to get out of its range, spinning into a somersault onto the wall above, driven by the buzz in her head. The explosion took out the post box she'd been resting it on, twisting it into a shapeless hunk of metal. The remaining windows shattered, and a car alarm went off down the street. Creepy goblin man hopped on the glider, cackled madly, and took off, kicking down on it like a motorcycle shifter. Being ever the thoughtful individual, Hikari reached out and fired her web at the glider, where it struck the wing with a meaty thwack.

When she came free of the wall, a section of brick came with her.

Oops.

She held on for dear life as the rocket blasted skyward, trying not to look at the angel off in the distance, which was apparently ignoring them. The wind tugged at her mask, threatening to pull the eye holes away from her vision. She started to climb up the web.

"Are you still here?" the creature snarled, reaching into his bag. Instead of a pumpkin he pulled a thin, sickle shaped blade, and threw it at her.

He missed. Or rather, he missed Hikari. The blade sliced cleanly through the strand of webbing and sent her hurtling earthward, and she let out a yelp as she fired off another and another, each cleanly cut by a hurled blade.

"I bet I have more of my web than you do of those things!"

"Probably," the creature retorted. He bent low, grabbed the front of his glider, and dipped.

The rocket streamed smoke behind it as it dipped low, swirling and twisting. Hikari had to fight to hold on as she swept from side to side on her web, desperately pulling herself forward. The goblin crossed his arms over his face in an x-shape and dipped into the park, battering her with branches. She drew a little nearer.

"Surrender, fiend!"

"You must be joking."

He reached into his bag, drew out another pumpkin, this one a dark green, and tossed it lazily over his shoulder, not even bothering to aim. As it passed her it burst, bathing her in blue-green smoke. She felt a strange lightness in her head as she coughed, matched by a heaviness in her limbs. She didn't realize she was about to let go of the web until she'd already done it, and went toppling backwards. The ground rushed up to meet her, but darkness got her first.

She awoke in a mud puddle, and when the chill hit her, realized her costume was soaked.

"Great," she muttered, and let her head slap into the mud with a splash. "Good job, Spider-Girl."

* * *

><p>Misato sat with her arms crossed at the conference table, surrounded by the bridge techs. Ikari and Essex were off doing God knew what, and she was perfectly comfortable with that. She let out a long breath in spurts, trying not to sigh again, and took a sip of cold, bitter coffee.<p>

"How much time do we have?"

"About eighteen hours. Just past midnight, it will breach the Geofront and approach Dogma." Said Ritsuko.

"Great," Misato muttered. "Why isn't it just boring through the ground with that beam?"

"It may not be able to raise its AT-Field while projecting the beam. The energy output would be enormous."

"So it's vulnerable. It can do offense or defense, but not both."

"That makes sense," said Ritsuko, shrugging.

Misato leaned back in her chair, took in some more coffee, and grimaced. "This tastes like shit. Fine, so we need to prepare a two-pronged attack."

"That's not really an option is it? We can't rely on an Evangelion surviving long enough to act as a decoy. The angel will just wipe one out, then turn its power on the other. The attack would have to be well coordinated."

"Is there some kind of shield we could use?"

Ritsuko sat back. "It would have be able to withstand enormous amounts of heat and pressure. I have no idea what we could use for that."

Maya, Ritsuko's mousy little assistant, piped up. "What about some kind of heat shield, like a space ship?"

"Okay," Misato deadpanned, "I'll just run down to the spaceship depot and pick up a spare heat shield."

"Wait," said Ritsuko. "Maya, you're a genius. There is a heat shield we can use."

The girl beamed as Ritsuko went on. "There's a decommissioned space shuttle at the depot in Hakone, where they've been working on that positron rifle. We could deploy one Eva with it, then when the angel attacks it, send up another to close with it and destroy its core."

"It's crazy," said Misato, "but it might work. Let's start putting the numbers together, people."

* * *

><p>When one among their number passed beyond the veil, the gods themselves descended the heavens and came to pay homage. Mari was astonished at the number of people who RSVP'd, many of them nothing less than persons of mass destruction. There was standing room only at the patch of forest where Tony wanted to be scattered, a horde of men and women and creatures standing in circles around the fifty or so chairs she'd thought she would need. It lifted her heart to see so many people come to pay their respect to him.<p>

She sat in the front row. Beside her, at the outside edge of the rows of chairs, Ben Grimm stood, simply too huge and heavy to have been supported by one anyway. Steve Rogers sat next to her, and down the row there was Rhodes, and Fury, and people she hadn't met- a short guy named Pimm, the astrophysicist Peter Parker and his wife, Susan Storm Parker, her brother Jonathan, a quiet, sad man who stared at the ground. She was absolutely shocked to see Reed Richards there- as far as she knew, no one had seen him in years. There were dozens of other people she didn't recognize, filling out the rows and the forest behind. A man sat behind her in the most elaborate costumery she'd ever seen, kindly and serene, he an amulet around his neck and a high collared cloak, and somehow the whole thing didn't seem disrespectful at all.

Before the ceremony, the man Tony had requested to officiate introduced himself to her. As far as she knew, her father never kept with religion, and so it surprised her when she was contacted by a Rabbi from New York who informed her that Tony had years ago asked him to perform the ceremony. She was too young at the time to remember her mother's funeral, but there seemed something familiar about him. He was a short, unassuming man with the sort of face one would expect of a cab driver, a conservative haircut, and many years of worry lined around his eyes, made into something entirely different when he smiled.

She didn't know how to address a Rabbi. She assumed 'father' was inappropriate.

He said to just call him Jack.

He ascended the little podium, where the sun stood behind him, over the waters. When he spoke his voice wasn't loud or bombastic, but it carried anyway, as if something rode before it to hush the crowd.

"Anthony Stark, Junior, was a great man," Jack said, looking out over the crowd. "We gather here today to mark his passing and celebrate his achievements. Throughout his life, Tony feared he would be remembered as a merchant of death, a purveyor of weapons and misery. As a young man, he was confronted by the reality of his trade and foreswore it. He put down the ways of war and took up the sword of peace, becoming a warrior of enlightenment, a staunch defender of mankind. His scientific achievements fed and clothed a world riven asunder by the great disaster of Second Impact. His inspiring wisdom brought together millions of people in the common goal of preserving humanity through its tribulations.

"Throughout all of this, Tony never lost hope or gave into despair, even when his lifelong battle against the forces of darkness took his ability to walk, or when he lost his beloved wife in Second Impact. He remained a modern knight, a mere man who walked with gods and wept with angels. He once said that the truth was, he was Iron Man. The truth is, Iron Man was Tony Stark.

"We hope now, that wherever he is, he finds some measure of peace, with his departed Pepper. I have no doubt that he looks down on his wonderful daughter Mari with pride and surety that she will exceed his own achievements and leave the world a better place."

"I will," she whispered, "I will, Dad. I promise."

* * *

><p>Frank really hated his life. Being stationed at Los Alamos was tantamount to a death sentence for a young Ph.D's career, and he'd been here for five years watching some idiot's lost piece of farm equipment stuck in a clump of dirt. Why the government had gone to the expense of dragging a chunk of Roswell desert out to the outskirts of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was beyond him. At one time, this place had been a bustling center of activity as a hundred scientists in a dozen disciplines pored over a hunk of metal with some wood sticking out of it. There were still a handful of people assigned to it, watching over it even after everyone else had simply thrown up their hands and given up on it. He felt like the guy pushing the crate at the end of <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark<em>.

What was worse was, they wouldn't let him get any sleep. Benny, the fat slob of a chemist that worked shifts with him observing the hammer, roughly shook his shoulders and almost knocked him out of the chair. Frank fought the urge to ask him if he'd lost the mustard again and instead blearily sat up, wishing they'd sprung for better chairs. All they did was sit around here anyway.

"What the hell is it?" he snapped, "Can't you see I'm trying to let my career die with dignity?"

"Frank," Bert almost hyperventilated, "You have to come down to the lab. Something happened."

"What?" Frank sat up, his stomach clenching. "Did some idiot leave his lunch in the containment chamber again?

"No, man, you don't get it. This is big."

Frank rubbed at his temples. "What _is it?_ Just spit it out, man!"

Bert took a long, slow breath, his eyes squeezed tightly shut in a gesture of piggy contemplation.

"It _moved._"

He sat there for a moment, stunned. Then he got up, almost tripped over his damn bathrobe, and made his way down to the observation level. What Bert told him was right. The hammer lay on the ground, a few feet away from the dirt clump on which it had rested ever since the fifty food wide section of Earth had been transported her, a shallow channel dug by the sharp edge of the rectangular head.

"Call somebody," said Frank, "Call somebody right now."


	6. Stuck in the Middle with You

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 6: Stuck in the Middle with You

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3, Japan<p>

Six Hours Before Operation Tate

"Wake up."

Shinji came around with a start to find Asuka standing over his bed, a clipboard under her arm. She was dressed in her form fitting plugsuit, which made looking her in the eye more difficult than usual, yet vitally necessary. He sat up a little, realized he was still in a hospital gown, and pulled the sheets of the bed up to his neck. Her face twisted slightly in amusement but she made no comment.

"What's wrong?"

"We have to get ready. Operation Tate will commence at midnight."

"What's that?"

"The attack on the creature," she held the clipboard in front of her. "As Unit One suffered the most extensive damage during the initial attack, Pilot Ikari will be on defense, and Pilot von Doom on offense."

"So what do I, um, do?"

"You will be given a heat shield from a decommissioned space shuttle. You will draw the angel's fire, at which time I will be deployed and strike it from the rear, destroying it. The goal of the operation is to destroy the enemy in less than thirty seconds."

He winced even before the words finished tumbling out of his mouth. "I can't do that!"

Asuka's eyes narrowed and she lowered the clipboard to her side. "I see."

She turned to leave, long red hair flashing in the fluorescent light. He realized he was starting to sweat. There were heat waves rising off her head. He clenched her fists at her side and the heat subsided, and he suddenly felt grimy with sweat.

"Wait, I-"

"What?" she snapped, standing in the door. "If your cowardice will not permit you to join me in battle, the Ayanami girl will take your place."

Without further comment, she marched into the hall and vanished around the doorway. Shinji sat up and pulled his knees up to his chest and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. If only he could be somewhere, anywhere but here. At the thought of piloting, he touched his chest, felt the fading sympathetic burn mark there, and shuddered.

She'd saved his life.

He was going to let her go up there and risk her life for him again, and force Rei to take his place. Rei could die. Asuka could die. They could all die. Why was it his problem? He wasn't a warrior. He'd just freaked out a little, that's all. What else did they expect him to do? He glanced at the folded plugsuit in the chair. They could handle it, he was sure. They didn't need him.

It wasn't his problem.

Was it?

Oh, damn it.

He winced as he slid off the bed. His legs felt like they would slide out from under him at any moment. He knew he wouldn't have time later, so he headed for the lavatory in the corner of the room now, hold to be hersing his gown shut with his hand as he felt cool air on his rear end, blushing despite being alone. The warm water of the shower was oddly comforting, despite his experience earlier in the day. He had no idea how long he'd been out. When he finally left the shower, he glanced at the clock and did the math- he'd been asleep for over nine hours. He sighed, pushed the door shut, and shrugged off the robe he'd found in the bathroom, and started slipping into his plug suit, wincing as it chafed at the burns.

Once dressed, he made his way down to the cages, wincing with each step. He knew there was nothing actually wrong with his left leg, that the feeling that he'd twisted his ankle would fade in a few hours, but it felt real enough to make him walk gingerly. It was a walk from the infirmary to the secure sections, and he got a few stares as he passed the medical personnel in his plug suit. His leg limbered up a little by the time he got to the elevator that would take him to the cages, enough that he could make his way at a fairly normal pace. He stood alone in the elevator as it descended, clutching himself.

There was no fanfare when the doors opened. The cages were a bustling hive of activity. Everywhere, technicians in orange jumpsuits moved about, carrying tools and files or nothing at all, grim looks on their faces. In the distance, he saw Unit One, wreathed in steam, standing in chest-deep LCL. The chest armor had been crudely patched with unpainted, flat gray panels held into place by welds that appeared downright crude compared to the graceful, sweeping shapes of the normal panels.

Asuka was standing around in front of Unit Two, observing the repairs to her own Eva and asking questions. She'd somehow managed to pin down Akagi, and Shinji shied away a little. The woman unnerved him with her intensity and her clinical way of speaking, like he was a part in a machine. He awkwardly stood behind them a bit, trying to get someone to notice him, before wandering over to Unit One. Rei was standing before Unit Zero, now returned to the cage, staring up at it. He stood next to her.

"Why are you here?"

"I came to fight," he said, softly.

"You do not have to. You are injured. I will take your place."

"N-no," he stammered, staring at the floor. "I can fight. I should fight."

She narrowed her eyes at him and he flinched. "Shouldn't I?"

"Your synch ratio is higher than mine, but if I die, I can be replaced."

He shuddered. "I wish you would stop saying that."

"Why? It is true."

"I know, but-"

He froze as Misato approached him. She looked tired. Her hair was unkempt, and she had bags under her eyes, and she smelled like coffee and cigarettes. Her uniform jacket was undone and hanging loosely around her, and rumpled as if she'd slept in it. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm going."

"Asuka said you refused."

"That's not true, I just… I'm scared."

She took his arm and led him away from Rei, and leaned close to him in a conspiratorial whisper. "So is she, but you're braver than she is, remember that."

"What?" he glanced at Asuka, far away on the other end of the platform. "How can you say that?"

"You acknowledge your fear. That's the first step to mastering it. Fear is healthy, Shinji. It's going to be hard for her when she learns that lesson. Bravery isn't about not being afraid. It's about being afraid and doing the right thing anyway. I'm proud of you just for coming down here."

She ruffled his hair and he smiled. "Thank you."

"Let's start getting ready. We only have a few hours left."

* * *

><p>At least she'd gotten most of the mud off.<p>

It took Hikari half an hour to get herself cleaned up, or at least passably so. Getting the mudd off of the swimsuit part of her costume was easy- it was waterproof, after all. The long underwear that covered her arms and legs was different, though. It wasn't caked on, but the fabric was stained and she'd have to launder it later. When she came around she realized she'd been out for a few hours, at least, and immediately worried that her absence would be noted. She hadn't even bothered to come up with an excuse for leaving. She leaned against a tree and took a deep breath. She'd gotten the crap beat out of her, in like five minutes. What was she even doing out here?

In the distance, she heard a soft cry. She stood up, listened, and found it hard to pick out sounds through the mask, and so yanked it off. She tried to wring the gunk out of it, listening as she did, taking halting steps down the path through the park. She heard it again, and broke into a sprint, yanking her mask down over her face as she did.

The sound was coming from an apartment block just outside the park. She couldn't get in through the front door, there was a key card slot, and she didn't have one, so she jumped up, grabbed the lintel over the doors, and pulled herself up onto the outside wall. She padded up the side until she got close to the source of the sound, and tapped on the window with her fingers.

A tiny face pressed up against the glass. A little girl stared out at her with huge, liquid eyes, emitted a terrified squeal and ran away from the window. With a sigh, Hikari dragged off her mud-caked ski mask once more and stuffed it under her arm, then tapped on the window again. Haltingly, the girl came back, looked at her, and then fumbled with the locks on the window for a while before she was able to open it up.

"Who are you?" the girl whispered.

"Uh," said Hikari, "I'm, uh, Spider-Girl."

"Weally?"

"Weally. What are you doing here? You should be in a shelter."

"I wost my mommy, so I came home."

Hikari nodded gravely. "Do you know what shelter you're supposed to be in?"

She shook her head. "Mommy knows the number. It's by a big building."

Oh, great. That really helped.

"How about this," said Hikari. "I'll take you to a shelter and I'll stay with you, and when the emergency is over, we'll come back and find Mommy, okay?"

"Mommy said not to talk to strangers."

"I'm not a stranger. I'm a superhero."

The girl blinked at her for a minute. "Okay."

"I have to put my mask back on, okay? Don't be scared, it' just me."

She slipped the mask back down, leaving it crinkled over her nose so that the lower part of her face was still exposed. She reached out to the girl. "Don't worry, I won't drop you."

Slowly, she climbed out, and Hikari took her, hugging her to her side, and made her way back down the wall of the building, and then dropped to the sidewalk, prompting a surprised squeak from the girl. Hikari headed towards the nearest shelter, accessible through the subway entrance near the apartment blocks. Once there, she pushed the emergency button near the door.

"Who is it?" the speaker box crackled.

"I found a kid out here. We need to come inside."

"What are you doing out there?"

"Looking for lost kids."

The box was quiet for a moment before the door clicked open. "Get in here and close the door."

Hurriedly, she slid through the opening and pulled the door shut behind her, the girl still clinging to her grimy shoulder. She made her way down the tunnel and found the inner door open, and passed inside. The huddled people inside looked at her as if she'd landed in a flying saucer. She set the kid down next to her, only for the child to cling to her leg, her eyes wide.

"Who are you?" the security guard nearest her said.

She pulled her mask the rest of the way down. "You can call me Spider-Girl."

"You must be kidding," the guard said, eyeing her up and down. "This isn't a joke, kid. You could have been killed."

Hikari sighed and ignored him. "Do you have a roster? I'm trying to find this girl's mom."

"Sorry, things were kind of rushed. I can't let you leave, anyway. I'm afraid we're here for the duration. I'll let you keep that silly mask on if you promise me you won't do anything this idiotic again."

"Fine," she sighed.

"What's up with the mud?"

"Long story," she said as she sat down.

* * *

><p>Asuka had to breathe deeply, even in the stinking fluid that surrounded her, to maintain her calm. She felt a tightness in her belly and a burning in her limbs, a refreshed desire for battle. She had to wait while the boy Shinji was launched skyward with the heat shield. There would be thirty seconds of time between his arrival on the surface and hers, to secure the angel's attentions on him and give her time to strike. It occurred to her that she should be the one wielding the shield, given her natural resistance to heat.<p>

Revealing that, of course, might mean compromising the mission, and was explicitly against her orders. So, she would let the boy go instead. She kept her face an impassive mask as she watched him through the communications link in her heads up display as he was squashed back into the seat, a look of raw terror on his face as the g-forces of launch took him. She positioned herself as the countdown appeared on the display. It would be less than twenty seconds now.

Shinji started screaming far ahead of schedule.

She could see him in the plug. The heat shield seemed to be helping little. For all his shrieking, he was hunched forward, his face pinched in concentration. The tracking blip on her map showed him zig-zagging through the city, and she the steady thrum of the angel's grinding drill ceased as it focused its attention on him. Suddenly, the beam ceased, leaving Shinji still screaming, his cries fading into soft yelps, and finally a sort of terrified panting as he stared in confusion.

She could feel it building up.

The angel shrieked and reshaped itself, its vast body shattering into a thousand shards, whirling on the core, and clamped back together in a long wedge. She felt as much as saw the blast build up through Shinji's gun camera, and gasped.

The beam was going the wrong way. It wasn't firing a weapon, it was generating _thrust._

"Katsuragi!" Asuka shouted, "Launch me! Now!"

"It's not time ye-"

"Now, damn you! It's going to kill him!"

The force slammed her back into the seat and she clenched her teeth on reflex, riding it out with all her strength until she felt the sudden lurch and upward pressure as she came to a stop. She arrived just in time to watch the angel's pointed shape launch forward at unebelivable speed, shoved by a nimbus of light. Shinji screamed as it slammed into him. The point gouged out a great rent in the heat shield and threw it out of his hands, redirecting it up and into the sky. It reformed itself again, and the new shape was smaller, tighter, the material visibly denser as it came around for another pass. Shinji barely made it out of the way before it crossed the space he occupied at such a speed that it would have torn the Evangelion to shreds with the impact.

The next time he wasn't so lucky. He jumped, but not far or fast enough. Shrieking, the angel lengthened its form into a deadly blade. When it hit, it sheared off Unit One's left leg in a single blow, sending it spiraling into a nearby building. Shinji screamed in pain and the Eva toppled to its side, landing with a great crash of debris and dust. It rolled, but would never get away in time as the angel rocketed skywards, turned in a lazy loop, and rocketed itself towards the ground, straight at Shinji's chest.

Asuka raised the heat shield between them, braced herself, and closed her eyes as the impact took her. Pain surged through her left arm and she cried out in pain, drawing it to herself, trying to concentrate on holding the heat shield up. The angel formed a flat nose at the end of its wedge shape and pounded the shield, pushing her down further and further, almost into a crouch. The LCL around her boiled, swirling in bubbling rivulets around her skin, the liquid the only thing keeping the seat and the controls and her plug suit from bursting into flame as she pushed up with her good arm.

Unit Zero crossed the distance from the launch tube in a mere instant, and shouldered into the angel, knocking it off course. It dug a deep trench in the surface, careened through a series of low apartment blocks, and skimmed into the nearby mountainside. Ayanami hefted a heavy palette rifle and opened up on it, the exploding shells digging deep rents in the creature's broadside. Asuka took hold of the shield, drew the Evangelion's wounded arm to her body, and jogged towards the fallen creature. It reshaped itself into a great crystalline star, whose points rose and then fell, anchoring it to the earth. The light gathered around it in rings as it charged its weapon and fired at her. She pressed the heat shield through the beam until she drew close enough to take a flying leap, raise it overhead, and bury the edge in the angel's body.

It let loose with a massive, concussive explosion that through her backwards and flattened everything around it, but a great crack had been torn in its body, exposing the crystal. Ayanami rushed up in Unit Zero to empty her rifle to it, but as she sprinted onto the angel's body, it shrieked again and from its surface erupted thousands of sliver-thing spikes, up through her legs and body, and she screamed and toppled backwards, dropping the rifle.

Unit One, dragging itself by its arms, cracked one of the spires loose, reared up on one leg, and with both bleeding hands rammed the spike down into the core. The angel quivered for a moment, wailed in a terror so profound Asuka could feel it in her eyes and gut, somehow, and it died as the core segmented in half and cracked into a thousand pieces.

The explosion threw Unit One past her, and blew a great crater in the mountainside. Unit One rolled and rolled, coming to rest against an armament building. She dropped the shield, turned, and ran towards him. Carefully, she rolled his badly damaged Evangelion onto its belly, lowered her own, and yanked on the emergency eject. She climbed out of the plug with the great wash of LCL that flowed free with the release of the pressure, and as soon as she touched the air, fire wreathed her body with a thudding _whump_ of ignition. Her plugsuit took to the air in ashy strips until only the reinforced pieces over her chest and body remained, and then those fell away, too. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down as she ran towards Shinji's plug. The fire slackened but did not stop.

She tried desperately to turn the emergency release, gritting her teeth in rage. When it wouldn't open, she plunged her hands into it, wreathed in white hot fire, and as it melted she peeled back the red-hot edges, working them like clay until it was open. Once she could fit through, she wriggled inside, the LCL steaming as her body touched it.

Shinji lay lopsided in the seat, his head bleeding from a wound at his hairline, resting against one side of the seat. Instictively, she reached out and touched his cheek, and as she did, the flames thumped out, and she could swear they flowed into him, swirling around her and down her arm into his body, fading away as it neared him. He groaned and opened his eyes, meeting her gaze with his own. He let out a deep, rasping breath and coughed a bit of blood onto his lips.

"I was wrong to call you a coward," she whispered.

"You're naked," he replied, and then passed out.

* * *

><p>When the shelter doors opened, Hikari was the first out. Tentatively, she made her way up the tunnel, through the subway terminal, and out onto the street. When she first crossed the threshold she expected to see some damage, from the smell of fire and the unique tang of pulverized concrete, but she didn't realize it would be anything like this. The entire area had been flattened. The park was a ruin, bare earth with a few shattered stumps protruding from a great mass of broken limbs and shattered trunks, like some kind of a grave yard. The subway entrance was miraculously clear, but, somehow, everything around it had been swept clean. A chill when up her spine when she realized that the whole block the girl's apartment complex was in was gone, just gone, and in its place was a melted strip of still-hot concrete and glass, smoking and smoldering.<p>

The girl clutched her tighter now, and Hikari closed her mouth hard, fearing what she might say if she began to speak. Aimlessly, she wandered towards the vast plain of wreckage and stood at the edge of it, staring. Off in the distance, she could see where the recovery of the Evangelion units had begun, and let out a startled gasp as she picked out, beyond the haze, where the hills surrounding the city had been swept away, gouged out by a massive explosion. There was a silky haze over the moon, tinged red like blood by the rising sun in the distance.

"Miu! Miu!"

Hikari stumbled a bit as a haggard looking woman in a smock ran up to her, shouting a child's name. It took her a moment of dull contemplation to realize that she was addressing the sleeping child in her arms. Gingerly, Hikari handed the girl over, and she smiled peacefully in her sleep. The woman looked at her for a moment, and with a shrug Hikari pulled her mask up to expose her nose and mouth.

"She said she got separated from you."

"Yes," the woman sobbed, squeezing her child even tighter. She stirred in her arms and woke, smiling happily at her mother. "Oh, where did you find her?"

"I guess it was your apartment," Hikari shrugged. "She said she went home after she lost you."

"I thought she might. I tried to go back for her, but the guards made me go into the shelter. They wouldn't listen. Oh, thank you, thank you so much," she sobbed, hugging Hikari with her free arm.

"I'm just glad I could help. I have to go."

Hikari nodded and smiled, and sprinted back to the school. It wasn't much of an exit, but there weren't any buildings to swing from anymore, not that she'd get much altitude this far out from the city center anyway. She could already hear the clanking and rumbling of the machines that came out to recover the robots after a battle. As she slowed to a jog she surveyed the devastation. A whole swath of the city had been wiped flat, swept clean and smooth like freshly poured concrete, and where once there had been gently rolling foothills there was now an ugly ragged scar from which the shadow of a mushroom cloud still rose.

The school was undamaged, which, to her, was a miracle. She darted around the back, slipped into the gymnasium from the roof, and headed into the showers. She stayed there under the hot water as long as she dared, double bagged her stinking, filthy costume, and dressed. When she walked home among the other students, she felt so tired that she could have laid down right then and there and gone to sleep, right by the side of the road.

She trudged up the stairs to their little house, and when she opened the door, Nozomi almost knocked her off her feet as she ran up and hugged her around the knees. She laughed and scooped her little sister up. Kodama and her father were in the den, both looking haggard. Father, a portly man of middle years whose hair had long ago decided to migrate from the top of his skull, looked a million years old, and she slowed as she came in the door, gently lowering Nozomi to the ground.

"There you are," Kodama snapped. "Where have you been?"

"Uh," said Hikari.

Her father, still staring at the table, spoke very softly. "They called our shelter from the school. Your class representative missed you."

"Oh," said Hikari. "That's weird. I was in there the whole time."

Kodama eyed her, but said nothing. "If there was a _proper _class rep in charge, things like that wouldn't happen, and old men wouldn't have more stress heaped on their shoulders."

Hikari swallowed, hard.

"Well," she shrugged, "school's out tomorrow… err, today, and we both have off work. I'm going to bed."

"Yeah," Hikari yawned, "I guess I should, too."

"Next time," Kodama said as she trudged up the stairs, "make sure they mark you present, okay? I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but I'd like to see you show a little more responsibility."

* * *

><p>Redding, California<p>

"Is everything packed?" Mari asked, looking around the empty house.

"Yes, Miss Mari. Your effects have been prepared as you requested, as has the Mark Ten armor."

"Great," she sad softly, throwing her shoulder bag behind her. She took another look around the house. "Keep an eye on things here, okay? This is still my home."

"Indeed. We shall return presently."

"You're not actually leaving."

"Yet I shall accompany you. Better living through chemistry."

Mari sighed softly. "Dad really needed to work on your sense of humor."

"Quite. The car is outside, if you please."

She trotted down the steps, trying her hardest not to look on the as yet unpatched wound on the front of her house. She'd arranged for that to be taken care of by the time she got back. She walked around the back of the Vantage, slipped her bag in the boot, and double checked that the folded mass of the retrofitted Mark V emergency suit was still secured. She had a plane to catch. Of course, it was her plane, but she still had a plane to catch. She looked at the house again when she stood by the driver's side door, then opened it and slipped inside.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes," he spoke through the car speakers now.

She turned the key and the car rumbled to life. Thumbing the car into reverse via the switches on the steering wheel, she wheeled it around, pleased by the steady thrum of the engine, and slowly rolled to the edge of the driveway. She let out a long sigh as she looked at the house one more time through the rear view mirror.

"Jarvis. Tunes."

_We're on a highway to hell…_

* * *

><p>Misato, unfortunately, had no time to sleep. She took a break from the mountain of paperwork that spontaneously appeared on her desk after the battle to make her way to the infirmary. It was a bit of a walk- the structure was actually on the surface, so she had to take an elevator up out of the main complex and walk down a lengthy hallway, bathed in the light of the dawn by the huge mirrors that lined the superstructure at the pinnacle of the Geofront's enormous domed roof. The corridor had an antiseptic air, and everything was a very sterile white that only made her feel older and more haggard.<p>

She almost knocked on the door when she reached Shinji's room and pulled her hand back, curling her fingers around her palm, then let her hand drift to her side instead. She gently nudged the door open with her foot and peered inside. They'd bandaged his head, and he looked to be sleeping peacefully, the sheets drawn up around his neck. She nudged the door open a bit more, and slipped inside.

His chest rose and fell in slow rhythm, and unlike times she'd looked in on him in the past, he wasn't curled up in a ball around himself. Of course, he wasn't whacked out on painkillers those times, either. Yawning, she decided to sit down for a moment. She thought about taking his chart and reading it, but it might as well have been printed in Greek. Affairs military were here area of expertise. Also, her Bachelor's was in Humanities.

The JSSDF had surprisingly low recruitment standards in those days.

She'd always wondered what it would be like to have a little brother. She had no living family that she knew, and the very notion of it brought back the painful memory of losing her father. She could still hear the howling of the winds, the terrible ripping sound of ice cracking, the cold under her feet and terrifying thrum of the thing in the distance drawing power and force to itself, to unleash the forces that would turn the world upside down and bring about a half decade of misery for humanity. In his own small way, Shinji was kind of a miracle. It was a wonder kids like him survived at all.

She'd never thought about having children of her own. The one shot she'd had at that decided to up and leave her like a thief in the night, alone with a cold bed and a wedding ring with an apology note on it. He was too old to be hers, anyway. She leaned her head back on the chair and smiled to herself. If he could show some backbone in the rest of his life the way he did when he was piloting, he'd have a much easier time of, well, everything. The girls would be hanging off him, that's for sure.

When she woke up, it was to the unique smell of the salted and seasoned cardboard that the infirmary alleged to be food. She sat up with a groan and stretched, and when she opened her eyes she was confronted by the bizarre sight of Asuka carrying a tray of food into the room. Without comment, she set the tray on the space for it on the guard rail of Shinji's bed and turned to leave.

"Hey," Misato whispered sharply, "wait a minute."

She stopped at the door. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Is it a custom in your country _not_ to feed one who is hungry?"

"No, not at all. It just seems odd. Last night you were railing at me about how much of a coward he is and how he disgusts you."

She blushed, she actually _blushed. _Misato thought she was about to sprout a pair of wings and fly away, too. The girl sighed softly, the sound alien coming from her lips. "I have… reassessed his character."

"I see," said Misato, smirking. "So, you brought him food."

"What?" Asuka muttered, confused.

Repressing the urge to snicker, Misato instead sat up and let out a long breath into her hand, pushing back a yawn. "Can I ask you something?"

"If you insist. I won't be returning to the apartment until you give me a ride back, it seems."

"Oh, I forgot about that. I'll have a Section 2 agent take you. Anyway, why did you think it was necessary to strip before you climbed out of your Eva?"

She did blush now, quite furiously, although her expression remained composed. "My plugsuit was partially melted. I was forced to discard it."

"And run over and hug Shinji while buck naked," Misato chided, a grin forming on her lips.

"I did not _hug_ him. I touched his chee… took his pulse."

"I see," Misato sank back into the chair. She fished around in her pocket and tossed the girl her house keys. "The security boys will take you home. I have work to do. I'll be there later."

"What about Shinji?"

"What _about _Shinji?" Misato smirked.

"Why do you keep talking like that?"

Misato stifled a chuckle. "I'll bring him home when he wakes up. He'll be groggy for a few days, is all."

She turned, snapped the keys into the pocket of her dress, and strutted out of the room. Misato felt a strong urge to just lay her head back and let herself drift off to sleep again, but instead she groaned and stood up, feeling an uncomfortable click in her knee. She needed coffee, and she needed it now. That, or sleep.

She settled for the coffee.

* * *

><p>Hikari came around at noon, and though still groggy, wandered down the stairs. Nozomi was in her pajamas watching some cartoon in the living room, and she heard her father snoring in his own bedroom. That left Kodama in the kitchen, poring over some of her homework from grad school. Hikari poured out an overly large bowl of cereal, plopped down, and began shoving it in her mouth.<p>

"What's with you, anyway?"

"Mpphhh," said Hikari, and then, after she swallowed, "Huh?"

"You're eating like a horse, lately. That's the third box of that crap you've eaten this week."

She shrugged and mumbled "Guess I'm growing," through another mouthful.

"If you weren't so cut all of a sudden, I'd suspect you were pregnant."

Hikari nearly choked on a mouthful of sickly sweet crunchy deliciousness, and had to rush to the refrigerator for a glass of water to wash it down. She was still coughing. "That's not funny."

"You're right," Kodama said without looking up, "It only highlights how optimistic I am about your chances of ever landing a boyfriend."

Hikari huffed at her. "That is not fair. I'm not that old."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hikari crossed her arms. "You're one to talk, is all."

Kodama sat up and scrunched her eyes at her. "It's not my fault everyone in my classes is a dumb jerk."

"It's not my fault everyone in my classes is a dumb jerk," Hikari retorted.

"What about that Suzahara boy?"

"He's not interested in me," Hikari sighed, slipping back into her chair. She took another bite of cereal.

"You're just giving up on him?"

"He looks at other girls all the time."

Kodama rolled her eyes. "They all do that."

"I mean, like, right at their butts and stuff."

"I said, they all do that."

"Shinji doesn't," she sighed.

Kodama piped up. "Who?"

"Shinji Ikari. He transferred in about a month or so, I guess."

"Wait, _Ikari _Ikari, like, _Commander_ Ikari? That Ikari?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I guess."

"Did you talk to him? Is he cute?"

"Yeah," she blushed, "I talk to him a lot, I guess. More than Toji."

Kodama leaned forward on her palms, a goofy grin on her face. "Oooh. Do you think he might ask you out?"

Hikari felt deflated, and stared into her cereal. She fished around for the last bite and pushed the bowl away. "I don't think so."

"Well, why not?"

"Well, he kinda lives with this other transfer student. Her name is Asuka."

"Oh?"

"She's really tall and pretty, and she has red hair, and she's in fantastic shape, and did I mention she lives with him? They're both orphans or something."

Kodama gave her a gentle poke in the belly. "Great shape, huh. Have you been doing crunches?"

Hikari quailed. "Uh, yeah, I guess."

"You should try bringing him lunch or something. Don't you ever do girly stuff?"

"I've always been kinda busy with the whole class rep thing," she shrugged.

"Well, think about it. Now get out, Kodama said, playfully. "I'm trying to get some work done, here."

Hikari stood and sighed, and walked back up to her bedroom. Her nightstand, such as it was, creaked when she opened the door, and she felt tempted to kick it. She shrugged out of her uniform shirt, changed into a simple gray sun dress, and headed out of the house, having made sure her costume was stuffed into the back of her closet, double bagged so no one would notice the smell. She was going to have to figure out how to get it washed sometime soon.

* * *

><p>Misato came home, stumbled in the door, and kicked off her shoes. Shinji followed along quietly behind her, head down, eyes on the floor, and as she leaned against the wall in the foyer, trying to stay upright, he sidled past her and headed for his room in near silence. Misato heard a metallic clang and froze. Slowly, she made her way into the kitchen.<p>

"Asuka, what the _hell _are you doing?"

She… she… she _cleaned._ The pile of garbage was gone. The dishes were missing from the sink, and Asuka was busily _polishing_ the refrigerator, or some such thing, biting her lower lip as she worked at some stain on the door with a moist cloth. She'd changed into her t-shirt and cutoffs and was fairly grimy herself, much dirtier than anything around her. She'd even scrubbed the damned floor. More to the point, something rather… interesting in its smell was bubbling away on the stove in a stock pot. She'd even set out a pair of plates.

She stood up and rolled her eyes. "I grow weary of your perpetual slobbery, woman. I come from a place of order and discipline, not… this. I left your sleeping quarters intact."

"Uh, thanks," Misato said, blearily. "I need a beer."

"You drink too much."

"I don't drink enough," said Misato. "If I drank enough, I'd have a beer now."

"Suit yourself," Asuka shrugged. "Where is Shinji?"

"Asleep, probably. He's still tired."

"Go get him. It is time for dinner."

On cue, Shinji wandered into the kitchen, eyes wide.

"Um," he said.

"I prepared a meal for us."

"O…kay…" he said, sitting down.

Misato cracked open a beer. This was priceless. As Shinji pulled his chair up to the table, she picked up the pot, set it on a hot pad on the table. Misato jumped in surprise, almost spilling beer all over herself. "Asuka!"

"What?" she snapped, fishing around in the drawer for a ladle.

"You grabbed that pot with your bare hands. Didn't that hurt?"

She froze. "Uh, yes, I am… trained… to disregard pain."

Misato blinked. "That's weird. Don't do that anymore, it's creepy."

"Whatever," Asuka snapped. She spooned out a healthy helping of… something onto Shinji's plate.

He stared down at it for a moment, then poked a bit onto his chopsticks and took a small bite. His face lit up, and he blinked in surprise. "This is… good."

Misato glared at him. "There's nothing wrong with my cooking."

"We wouldn't know," Asuka deadpanned as she ladled out a mound of whatever it was she'd made onto her plate. "We've never had your _cooking._"

Misato huffed and sat down to eat. Asuka thoughtfully glopped some of the foodstuff into her bowl and Misato took a small bite, and discovered why Shinji had reacted the way he did. This was… good. Very good. It was mostly some sort of gravy or thick soup, in which she'd mixed up rice, sliced bits of chicken, and some spices Misato didn't recognize, mostly because they didn't furiously burn her tongue and lips. It was piping hot, too. She began to eat rather hungrily, almost forgetting herself. Asuka served herself last, mumbled something, and ate her food primly, if that were possible, sitting with her back perfectly straight, making odd, precise, almost rhythmic movements.

"This isn't bad," Misato mumbled through a mouthful of food.

Asuka swallowed her food before speaking. "Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't they teach officers in your organization any _decorum?"_

Misato sighed and rolled her eyes. She didn't stop eating, though.

* * *

><p>One of the advantages of being a billionaire was never having to go through airline security. Having her own airfield accounted for that. When Mari pulled the Vantage up to the tarmac on the private Stark airfield, a pair of attendants in white gloves and tails approached immediately. They took her shoulder bag, and she handcuffed the Mark V to herself. The red metal of the outer shell gleamed, freshly polished during Jarvis' retrofit. Fitting into a suit designed for her father would have been uncomfortable, to say the least, without proper modification.<p>

She yawned as she walked up into the cabin of the plane. The other advantage she had was that she wasn't in need of a pilot. She knew the rudiments of flying herself, of course, but Jarvis would do most of the work, requiring her air to actually fly the thing if there was some kind of a malfunction. She undid the cuffs and slid the case under one of the seats towards the rear, and flopped into it. She slid her glasses off and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Okay, Jarvis," she said to the ceiling. "Start preparing to take off."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Tell me the itinerary again."

"We will arrive in Tokyo-3 at roughly eight in the morning, local time, approximately an eleven hour flight. There are several meetings scheduled, and you will be attending the demonstration of the Jet Alone project."

"What's that?"

"It is a giant robot. Nuclear powered, far less advanced than either Evangelion or Stark technology. The concern behind it is the primary weapons supplier for the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force, and attempted to purchase Stark technology last year."

"Right. Who all is going to be there?"

"Several representatives of Nerv. Ritsuko Akagi, chief engineer of the Evangelion project-"

"What's her background?"

"B.S. in chemistry, M.A. in chemistry, PH.D in biochemistry with a secondary concentration in computer science, medical doctor."

"Wow, that's pretty impressive. How old is she?"

"Indeed. Thirty-two years old, born in 1985."

"Really? How did she do all that if she's so young?"

"Perseverance, I suppose. Shall I continue?"

"Go ahead."

Outside, the engines rumbled, and Jarvis began smoothly taxiing the plane to takeoff position on the runway.

"Misato Katsuragi, Operations Director, holds the rank of Captain. Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, Master of Arts in Earth Science."

"That sounds like a teacher's background," Mari yawned, flipping open the panels of buttons around her seat. "Hey, why is there a button labeled 'stripper pole' in here?"

"For the stripper pole. Katsuragi is-"

"The what?"

"The stripper pole," Jarvis repeated, a note of annoyance in his synthesized voice.

"My mother let him keep a stripper pole in his airplane?" she said, shocked.

"Of course, she used it quite frequently. As I was saying-"

"Jarvis, next time I ask a question like that, lie to me. Will anyone else from Nerv be at this thing?"

"No one of note. The senior staff apparently does not deem it worthy of their time."

"Anyone else I need to know about?"

"Justin Hammer will be there."

"Ugh," Mari grunted. "Not him. What the hell is he doing there?"

"The Jet Alone project apparently incorporates several technologies from Hammer Industries."

"Great. It's not going to explode, is it?"

"No, it would melt down. Nuclear reactors do not typically explode unless-"

"I was joking. What's the dress code?"

"Black tie. It will be an evening demonstration. According to the invitation we received it will be quite the bash, as it were."

Mari quirked an eyebrow. "Well, you know what that means."

"I am afraid I do not."

"I can't wear my prom dress, now can I? I'm going to need proper clothes. Make me some appointments."

"I am trying to fly an airplane, Miss Mari."

She sighed. "Just do it."

"Yes, ma'am."

She leaned back into her seat as she felt the plane begin to pick up speed, and closed her eyes as the front wheel came up, the whine of the engines growing louder and steadier. She didn't look out the window but for the barest, glimpse, and closed the shade. "I will find the people responsible for this."

"I'm sure you will," said Jarvis. "We are en route."

* * *

><p>Maya drummed her fingers on the printout, waiting for Ritsuko to arrive. She'd chosen a nice place for them to meet- a little restaurant not far away from where Maya lived. They had to be indoors, since Ritsuko hated being outside. The heavy coats and sweaters she always wore made the prospect of eating outside, even in the cooler evenings, an unpleasant one for them both. She slid the paper back into the folder and took a sip of tea. Ritsuko came through the door and she let out a sigh of relief. Dressed in a conservative, and somewhat bulky, black pantsuit, Ritsuko had on a pair of heavy black sunglasses that hid her eyes and had pulled on a hat to cover her hair. She slid into the booth next to Maya and took the printout.<p>

"I have a few hours before someone notices I'm gone," she said absently. "They're moving the Evas into the cages. This is going to be a nightmare. The repair costs will be insane." She sighed. "Let's see what's going on here. "

May waited while she went over the printouts. "Not much here, I'm afraid. Budget requests, some sort of data tables, but I can't read them without a key. There's references to blood samples, here, but I'm not sure what he's using them for. I do recognize these names."

"Who are they?" said Maya.

"This Xavier person is a mutant rights advocate from America. I looked up Banner, he did some groundbreaking work on radiation a few years ago and then disappeared off the radar. There's some sort of codes associated with each name, but I have no idea what they may mean."

"You think he has blood samples from all of these people?"

"Probably. I know he's holding some people down there, but this list implies there's a full size prison down there. There's hundreds of people on this list."

"What would he be doing with them?"

Ritsuko sat back in the booth, winced, and pulled off her hat, then ran her fingers through her hair. She looked around, back at the papers, and back at Maya. "Experiments, obviously, but I have no idea to what end. We keep giving him data about the Evas from all the tests, but we never seem to get anything back. The reports we send him just go into a black hole. What would he want blood from a scientist for, anyway? Banner isn't a mutant. I assume the others are."

"It's weird," said Maya. "It's weird that this guy has these clearances, he's always hanging around our tests and collecting data from us, and no one seems to even know what he does, except the Commander. You're the head of Project E. Aren't you supposed to know this kind of stuff?"

Ritsuko shrugged, and winced again.

"Is it bothering you? You don't have to go back to work."

Ritsuko slipped off her sunglasses and rubbed at her nose.

"You could come over to m-my place for a while," Maya stammered. "We could-"

"Rits!"

Ritsuko snapped her gaze to the lithe man with the ponytail approaching their table. Her eyes widened, and she immediately slipped her sunglasses back on, shoved the papers into the folder, and slid it across the table to Maya. She hastily shoved the bundle into her shoulder bag and sat back, coughing into her hand.

"Kaji?" said Ritsuko. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He was dressed in a deliberately casual suit, and wore his tie loosened, yanked sharply to the side in a way that was almost too perfect, and stood with a sort of casual air despite graceful, catlike movements. He tapped a laminate that was clipped to his coat pocket. "I work for the UN now. Special Inspector Ryoji Kaji."

"Kaji, this is Maya. My assistant."

"Assistant, eh? I thought you got past that schoolgirl thing."

"What? That was just a rumor!"

"Uh," said Maya.

"Don't listen to this louse," said Ritsuko. "What do you want? You always want something."

"Oh, I was just out for a stroll. The shops in this town are so lovely, and have such wonderful discounts," he grinned.

He slid into the booth next to Maya, nudging her off to the side. "Assistant, eh? Well, I'm sure Rits here is busy. How would you like to show me around town? Help me get the _lay of the land?_"

She slid away from him, towards the wall. "No, _thanks."_

He sighed wistfully. "Some other time, then. It was a great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Maya."

He sidled out of the seat, shot Ritsuko another sloppy grin, and strolled out the bistro, his jacket thrown over his shoulder. He gave them one last grin as he stepped outside into the sun, letting the warm air outside wash in the smell of burned, smashed concrete from the distant aftermath of the battle.

"I have to head back. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay," Maya sighed.

She watched Ritsuko go, took a deep breath, and put out some cash for the tea and the tip. With a sigh, she got up, turned around, and realized that the folder was gone.

* * *

><p>Kaji pulled his Lotus out of traffic and wheeled into a parking lot, where he had a good, three hundred and sixty degree view of the area. He didn't have all of his equipment with him, but he kept his shock gloves under the seat, as well as a gas bomb or two, ready to pull out and cover his getaway. It paid to be vigilant- some idiot in a mask might show up at any moment, no matter how careful he was about his identity, and he couldn't be one hundred percent certain that Nerv didn't know who he was, despite the steps he took to conceal his identity at every level when he took a contract.<p>

He slipped the folder out of his coat, opened it, and flipped through the papers. As he read, his eyes widened. He recognized a number of these names, although the scientific terminology was a mystery to him. He'd have to run checks on these names, of course, figure out exactly what he was looking at, here, and, of course, how he was going to get the most money out of it.

That would come later, though. He carefully slid the file under the passenger's seat, pulled out into traffic. He had to pick up his tuxedo. He had a party to attend.

-break-

With a belly full of most excellent stew, sleep came to Shinji with comforting rapidity. He was glad of it. Every time he moved, he felt a lance of pain through his knee, where the Eva had lost its lower leg, and his hands still burned. As he lay on his mat, the sensations dulled enough for darkness to swell up and take him away, borne on its currents into rest. At least, for a while.

Then, the dreams began.

It was as usual. He found himself staring at his four year old hands, pressed impotently against the glass. He watched mother cross the bridge to the massive, quivering, vivisected form of the Eva, apprehension in every step. His fingers made tiny squeaking sounds as he pressed harder on the glass. Slowly, she climbed towards the prototype entry plug, much larger and more complex than the one he was used to, in her bulky contact suit, fumbling with her helmet. She looked up at the glass and smiled.

He saw her face.

He let out a yelp as emotions surged through him, joy building up to break through his sorrow, and he smiled. She was so beautiful. He pressed against the glass as if he could reach through it and embrace her, feel the warmth of her arms again. He felt the familiar surge of waking, the sensation of being pulled through the dream, and everything began to blurr, to melt, as awareness of his pained knee and raw hands and the throb in his head flowed through, but she was still looking at him. He clawed desperately at the dream, felt himself pressing his eyes closed, fought with all his might not to wake.

_Yes, you can do it._

He started at the voice, and almost woke, but redoubled his concentration. The sensation of his body faded, and the dream became more solid, more real. He drew back from the glass and looked for a door, a way to get to her. His father reached out to stop him but he ducked under his hands and felt along the wall for the door, seeking it hungrily. She was out there and he could be held by her again, smell her again, even if it wasn't real.

_Do not look for the door, Shinji. Make the door._

He stopped, blinking, and closed his eyes. He thought of the idea of a door, and opening in the wall that would take him where he wanted to go. When he opened them again it was there, a simple wooden door with a plain brass knob. He took a deep breath and turned it, feeling the solidity of it, the reality of it in his hand, cool metal against his flesh, the way the metal ground as turned on its oiled core. He pulled it open, expecting to find a hallway, a plain metal corridor in the depths of Nerv.

Instead, it opened onto a garden. He stared in shock for a moment, then stepped through the door, feeling soft earth beneath his feet. He looked down at himself and realized he was no longer a child, but as he was in the waking world. He heard the distant babbling of a gentle stream, and the soft cries of birds. A glorious bird of many colors, green and blue and red, passed over his head, drawing itself out behind its body like an artist drawing paint along a canvas with a fanned brush. Before him there was a gently sloping path, narrowly twisting through the trees. He began to walk.

The path turned and looped around itself, somehow, through more trees. He had the intense sensation of being watched from within the foliage, and thought he caught a glimpse of yellow shapes moving beyond the leaves. He paused when he saw a spider, a fat red and blue orb weaver dancing along a web between two branches, busily building around a smaller one in yellow and black, entangling it. When it saw him, it paused and raised its forelegs, but he had the distinct impression that it was a gesture of salute, not a threat posture. He took a step towards it to look closer.

_Do not stray from the path. There are dangers here you are not prepared to face, from which I cannot protect you._

He moved back to the center of the path and went on following it until it began to rise again, finally reaching the top of a hill, where there was a fountain in the center of a simple garden formed by neatly trimmed concentric rings of shrubberies and carefully raked stones. He followed his path to the terminus and studied the fountain for a moment.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

"Hello, Shinji."

He rounded on an elderly man in a bizarre costume; a high-collared yellow cloak over a loose, flowing robe. At his neck he wore a large gem set in a golden chain that gleamed with its own light. Shinji could feel it somehow, the way he felt Asuka at a distance, and felt drawn to it. He almost reached out to touch it, but kept his hands at his sides. The stranger favored him with a slight, but polite, bow.

"I am Stephen Strange."


	7. Once Bitten

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 7: Once Bitten

* * *

><p>-68.768235,-4.790039<p>

September 13, 2000

The front of her parka was crusty with rusty smelling dried blood, caked on her chest and arms. Some of it was hers. Some of it wasn't. Thin streaks of it coated the inside surface of the pod, the smooth white metal streaked with powdery dried gore, as if it had rusted prematurely, drawn into shiny little crystals by the cold. When she moved, her limbs felt heavy,as if she'd been weighed down, and when she moved her head, she heard a grinding noise, as if someone have filled her head with wax. The rhythmic thump-thump of the waves against the side of the pod and the gentle rise and fall lulled her, but she was afraid if she went to sleep again, she wouldn't wake up. She was cold, inside and out, and there was ice in her eyebrows. Every breath flowed from her lips in a haze, then condensed and froze into a thin sheen on the roof of the pod over her head.

She wasn't sure how long she was in the pod. Sometimes, it felt like she was never anywhere else. It moved up and down, up and down, rolled side to side, side to side, until it came to rest against something. She heard voices and tightened on herself, trying to breath into her body in vain hope she could gather enough warmth to tighten her aching muscles into action, but she could barely draw her legs to her chest. The pod lurched and she tasted the dry inside of her mouth and closed her eyes, fighting the bile that rose up her throat. She felt it come to rest on something hard, and heard the clang as someone pawed at the metal.

The lid opened and she snapped her eyes shut. There was only night and a blanket of stars on the sky so dense it seemed like there was more light than dark in it, but the brightness of it made her wince. Someone knelt down beside her, blocking the stars, a void of dark shapes that filled her vision. She shank back a little, trying to hide, but there was nowhere to go, and the cold surface of the pod hurt her, even through her heavy coat. The shape resolved. It was a man in a heavy coat. He had a mask over his face, but he slid it back and let her see it.

"Can you talk?"

She shook her head. He moved forward and wriggled into the pot a little, enough to get his arms under her and pick her up. She wasn't a little girl but he lifted her like she weighed nothing at all, and she rolled against his chest. When he picked her up and out of the pod, it shocked her how small it was. She thought it was bigger from the inside. A group of men in parkas were running to her with a stretcher and he put her on it helping her stretch out.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

She shook her head. She wanted to. She wanted to tell the nice man all about the monster and the blood, and the _teeth_, the _teeth_, but she was afraid, and tears stung her eyes. He pulled a blanket over her and touched her forehead.

"You're burning up. Come on, people, let's get this kid to a medic."

They carried her away. That was the last thing she remembered until she woke up with the scar.

* * *

><p>Misato awoke bathed in cold, acidic sweat, the smell of herself stinging her nose. She shuddered and realized she'd rolled off her futon into a pile of junk and was curled on herself. She'd slid her hand up under her skirt, working her fingers up the line of the ugly scar that ran from her belly to her collarbone, and when she pressed it flat to her chest she could feel her heart pounding. Slowly, she slid her hand out and rolled back onto the bed, chewing her lip. She wanted desperately to sleep, with only two hours to go until she had to face a long day at work followed by racing home to change and carpool with Ritsuko and Maya to this ridiculous Jet Alone demonstration, and she still felt bone tired from the day before.<p>

She heard soft footsteps, and fingertips tapping on her door.

"Misato?"

"What is it, Shinji?"

"Are… were you having a nightmare?"

She sucked in a breath. "No. Why?"

"Oh, I thought you were. Are you okay?"

"Yes, Shinji. Go back to sleep."

"Are you… are you sure?"

"_Yes,_" she insisted. She sat up a little, sighed, and flopped her head down on the pillow. "I don't care what you say, I am not letting you sleep in here."

She could practically hear him blushing. "That's not what I meant!"

"Will you two shut up!" Asuka snapped. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"Go back to sleep," she muttered, burying her face in the pillow.

She turned over and winced. The night was the night of a full moon, and light streamed in through her window, illuminating her bedroom like daylight. Shadows and pale light played on the piles of junk in her room. She really did need to clean this crap up.

"Are you still out there?"

"…yes."

"It's okay, Shinji. I'm okay. Go to sleep."

"Okay," he whispered.

She closed her eyes and tried to claw her way back into sleep.

* * *

><p>The security guard gave Toji a disinterested glance as he walked out of the hospital, the automatic doors parting before him to admit the chill night air. He'd been in Kanna's room all night, and had a few hours to get home, sleep fitfully for an hour or two, and rise and shower for school. The moon was out full, and lit the world around him in an odd light that reminded him of pictures of snowstorms in books. Having been born and living in Japan after the Impact, he'd never seen a snowstorm, only snow from a great distance. The chill of an almost-autumn night like this was the coolest it would ever get, and he didn't even need to bother with a jacket.<p>

He walked down the middle of the street as he made his way home. No trains ran now, so he had to go on foot. Between the moon and the street lamps, he felt perfectly comfortable walking with his hands thrust in his pockets. Given how badly a giant robot hand landing on his back had hurt him, he wasn't especially concerned for his safety anyway. He shuddered at the thought. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and slowed, glancing at it. He thought he'd seen a flash of white, something moving between fence posts.

Shrugging, he picked up his pace. The strangest sense fell on him, and he was sure he was being watched. When he took his next step, his foot stuck to the asphalt and he almost tripped over himself. It popped loose when an audible release and he stumbled forward a few steps, and then went on. He was getting better are preventing that, but he'd already broken his bed and cracked a seat on a bus.

He heard a soft sound behind him and spun on his heels, throwing his hands out for balance and to defend himself if he were attacked. He felt a little silly. There was nothing behind him. He let out a slow breath, noting that it fogged a little, straightened, and turned to start on his way home.

Ayanami was in the road.

She was half naked, dressed in the starched shirt from her school uniform. Her bare feet were raw from walking on asphalt, but his gaze was drawn to her chin. The lower half of her face was crusted with dried blood. She stared at him so intent he thought she was trying to look through him. At first, he thought her eyes were closed, but he'd mistaken the whites of her eyes for her creamy skin. Her eyes were all white, like chips of alabaster set in her eye sockets.

"Ayanami?" he said as he drew nearer. "Are you okay? You're bleeding! What are you doing out here?"

She lowered her gaze a little as he got closer to her. He noticed that she was shaking and reached out to put a hand on her arm, to steady her.

It was incredible, how fast she moved. He had no idea. She was on him in an instant, and bowled him over onto his back, a low, hungry hiss that was almost a moan rumbling from deep in her chest. She pinned him to the ground, shoved his chin back with her cheek, and bit down hard on his throat. He felt fangs slide across his skin and he gasped. He grabbed her at the shoulders and tried to push her off of him, but she was too strong. As her teeth scraped across his flesh, her tongue flicked against his skin, and almost at once an incredible sensation of peace and warmth fell over him, flowing out from the spot on his throat where she touched him.

He liked it. A lot. In fact, he slid his arms around her and pressed her to him harder, excited by the feeling of her sinuous curves against his body. Then, all at once, a realization hit him. She was _chewing_ on him.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" he shouted, trying to snake his way out from under her. She continued to cling to him and he rolled, landing on top of her, and then back onto his back. Finally he squirmed out from under her and left her panting on the ground, her eyes rolled back into her head or whatever the hell was wrong with her. He started to stand up, made it to his knees, and looked around.

Damn it, he couldn't leave her here.

"Are you having a seizure or something? The hospital is-"

She shook her head vigorously. "No hospital," she rasped, "take me away, machines. Need to rest. No moon."

Gingerly, he got his arms under her and picked her up and she squirmed over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Can't help it," she rasped. "S-sorry."

It wasn't that far. Even carrying her he made good time, breaking into a jog. He should have twisted his ankle twice, but it just didn't bother him, even when he sprinted up the stairs to the apartment with her over his shoulder. He fished around in his shirt for the key, opened the door, and flopped her onto the couch in their small living room. She was deathly pale, so much so that her skin seemed to glow in the dark. He knelt down beside her. His throat was covered with blood, but it wasn't his, and it was cold, starting to dry. Her breaths came in short, ragged gasps, and she started to rise.

"Don't let me leave," she pleaded, her soft voice barely audible.

"What?"

"Don't let me go. Hurt someone."

He blinked. She shuddered for a moment, her eyes started to shine again, and she hissed at him, her mouth open too-wide. She jumped towards the apartment door. He sprinted after her, grabbed her, and they both hit the door with a thump. He put his arms around her and clamped onto his own shoulders, crushing her tiny body to his. She bucked and thrashed, kicking at him, pounding her heels into his shins, but he ignored it. He made his way over to the couch, forced her to sit down with him, and did his thing. There was a series of pointed bangs and a snap, and the legs broke out from under it. The frame hit the floor with a boom. She struggled and wheezed but couldn't move, couldn't break his grip. She hissed and started licking the drying blood off of his neck.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>Misato awoke, if it could be called that, to the sound of her alarm, and blearily fumbled with it until she shut it off with a too-hard slap that made the buzzer whine a little as it went silent. She stared at it for a moment, hoping she hadn't damged it too badly, and slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees, resenting the four beers she'd had before bed. She let herself breathe for a while, and then got up, stumbling over a pile of car magazines. She slid her door open and almost stepped on Shinji.<p>

He was curled in front of her door. He'd gotten a sheet and a pillow and rolled up with them in front of her room. He was still sleeping peacefully. She looked down at him and sighed. He nudged his arm a little with her foot, and he stirred.

"Get up," she said, a little more harshly than she meant to. He moved a little, pinched his eyes shut, and then looked up at her. She gave him another, playful kick. "Quit trying to look up my shirt."

"I wasn't," he said defensively, rolling onto his side. He stood up, pulling his pillow and blanket with him.

"What were you doing?"

He looked at her sadly for a moment and opened his mouth, as if he were mulling over something, and then closed it again. "Nothing."

She studied him for a moment. "Go back to sleep. In your room. You don't have to be up for three hours."

He sighed and nodded, and slowly walked back down the hall, disappeared through his own door, and closed it behind him. She stared after him briefly, trying to puzzle out exactly why he'd slept on the floor outside her bedroom. He didn't seem to take her playful flirting too seriously; she didn't think it had anything to do with that. As she waited for the water in the shower to warm, she brushed her teeth, glancing occasionally at the hallway. Satisfied that he wan't stirring, she shut the door, stripped and got in the shower.

She was so damned tired, and it felt like the more she drank before bed, the harder it was to get to sleep. She was drinking about fifty cans of beer a week, now, and started to worry herself about it, rubbing at her arms. She breathed in the steam from the shower and felt a little better, but not much. She decided she wasn't going to start today off with a beer.

She did anyway.

* * *

><p>When Toji woke up, he was alone. He hoped for a thank you note or a phone number or something, but no, he stayed there holding Ayanami down until sunrise, only to finally fall asleep and be woken up about twenty minutes later by his alarm clock, with nary a sign she'd been there. He lay there listening to it bleat in his bedroom and ran his hands down his face, and then recoiled as he pulled his left hand back, coated with a dusty layer of dried blood, like dark rust. The reality of it hit him and he jumped up with a yelp.<p>

"What the _hell_," he said, "what the hell, what the hell!"

He grabbed the sides of his head and sucked in a deep breath to calm himself. He stood up, breathed out, and marched into the bathroom. There he took a quick shower, focusing on getting the dried blood on his face, and then marched into his room to get dressed. He was going to get answers, and he was going to get them today, no matter what he had to do. Once he was dressed he picked up his book bag, not caring that he hadn't actually done anything with it, and double checked the door. He hastily scrubbed off a bit of dried blood, stuffed the dish rag in his pocket, and jogged outside. The cool morning air passing through his hair was refreshing.

As he rode, he looked around for a tuft of silvery blue hair, and saw nothing. He drummed his fingers on his leg, anticipating his arrival at the school. When the doors opened and the students and commuters cascaded out, he was among the first, ignoring the pushes and shoves and an elbow to the side. He was more aware of him than truly able to feel them, anyway. When he was clear he sprinted to the school and worked his way into the crowd.

There she was, standing next to her locker with that little nebbish cousin or whatever he was of hers, the Ikari kid. He forced his way through the crowd to her side, and when she saw him her crimson eyes went a little wider, but she didn't say anything, just went about stuffing things in her locker.

"Are you okay?" he demanded.

"I'm fine," she said in a quiet, flat monotone. She didn't look at him.

"Did you get home okay? Are your feet still bleeding? What the _hell _was that?" he whispered, growing closer to her.

She faced him, her eyes boring into his. "You helped me. That is all."

The boy, Shinji, looked like he was trying to sink through the floor. Toji willed him too, but apparently that only worked on himself. He tried to fight down his anger, but it didn't help. It still welled in his belly like a coiled snake, pushing up on his guts.

"How did you know how to find me? How did you know you wouldn't hurt me? _Why were you trying to bite my neck?_ Who's blood was that? I want answers, Ayanami."

"I can't tell you."

"Does this have something to do with Nerv?" He drew closer to her still, his voice a hushed whisper. "Are they experimenting on you or something?"

"Don't say that!" Shinji chirped, interposing himself between them. "It's dangerous. They watch us. You'll-"

"Look, you little shit," Toji snapped, grabbing Shinji by the collar of his shirt. "I am not in the mood for you right now. My sister is going to die and there's nothing I can do about it. If there's something I can do for Ayanami I am _going to_, whether you're too much of a wuss or not."

"It's not like that," Shinji pleaded, "you don't under… wait, what about your sister?"

"The _stupid _pilot and his _stupid _robot almost got us killed, that's what. She can't even wake up!"

Shinji's face was so pathetic it made Toji ease up on his grip.

"She… she was hurt by the robot?"

"_I just said that!" _

Shinji touched Toji's forearms, rested his fingers on them lightly. "Take me to her. Please."

"What?"

"As fast as you can, before it's too late."

"She's in the hospital," Toji trailed off. "What do you…"

"Please, let me help you."

Toji looked around. Ayanami was staring daggers at him. "We should not-"

Shinji looked at her. "Please. _Please?"_

She remained silent.

"Fine," said Toji, "let's go. Out the back. No one will notice us."

* * *

><p>Hikari felt a little ragged as she walked into the school. As invigorating as swinging her way in was, it didn't cap off another all-nighter very well. She was beginning to wonder what the hell she was doing, running down two bit thugs. What was next, getting a cat out of a tree. One of the guys last night <em>shot<em> at her, and she was still shaking a little from the thought of it. She felt it coming and jumped out of the way, but the guy was actively trying to kill her. Even the psycho in the goblin suit wasn't going out of his way to kill her, or so she thought.

She saw Toji, Shinji and Ayanami standing around some lockers, talking heatedly about something. Toji had Shinji by the collar of his shirt and was yelling harshly in his face, and he looked terrified. Hikari felt her cheeks heat and rushed forward, pushing through the crowd of students.

"Hey!"

Toji turned. "HorakI? What is it?"

"Leave him alone! He didn't do anything to you!"

"Hikari," Shinji piped up. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Huh?"

"He says he can help my sister," said Toji, lowering his voice. "We're sneaking out and going to the hospital."

Hikari looked around. None of the other students were paying attention to them. She scratched her chin, shrugged her book bag into her locker and said, "Let's go. I'm in."

"We will attract too much attention," said Rei. "We-"

"Hurry up," said Toji, dragging Shinji by the wrist. "If we're going to go, let's go."

Together, they slipped out the back door. Toji took up the rear, acting as lookout. Hikari deeply hoped her danger-sense would warn her of an incoming suspension, as she felt nothing. When Toji stepped out and the door closed and locked behind him, she fell in step next to Shinji as they walked.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," he said, thickly. "He's upset about his sister. He has a right to be."

"Oh," said Hikari, as recognition dawned on her.

The day was as bright as the night had been clear, and the walk to the hospital was a troubled one, skirting danger areas where damage from the last battle was being repaired. Hikari glanced at the ruins of the building where she'd found the child and smiled to herself. At least she'd done some good. Toji knew the way intimately, it seemed, even without the benefit of the train, and all told, it took almost an hour of wandering to actually make their way to the hospital. The security guard recognized Toji, gave Hikari and Shinji a skeptical glance, and looked at Rei as if she was from another planet, but said nothing as they entered.

Toji sucked in a breath as he walked into the elevator and pushed the button for the third floor intensive care. Hikari watched him nervously, seeing the way his eyes changed as he watched the little light move from floor to floor as they ascended. He led the way, walking the halls with an awful familiarity. He took them into his sister's room, and she saw him shaking as he did.

His sister was a ruin. She lay abed, tubes and intravenous lines snaking out of her body, a dozen beeping machines arranged around her. Her tiny face was barely visible under a mess of bandages, her skin so pale she was almost ashen. Her tiny hands grasped and curled around the bedsheets, but she made no sound, and Hikari didn't need to go to medical school to see that she was in dire straits. She saw Toji's face and tears stung her own eyes. She buried her face in her hand and turned away, sniffing.

Shinji walked up to the bed. Slowly, gingerly, he rested his fingertips on the girl's face, and his hand on hers. Toji started to say something but stopped, as if he could feel it. It moved all around them, like a wind that wasn't really there, drawing up and swirling around Shinji. He closed his eyes.

Something happened.

The monitors all screamed, and the girl arched her back in the bed. Her eyes flew open wide and she lout a gurgling cry. Shinji paled and shook, his arms trembling, his jaw set in a grimace of concentration. Toji cried out and tried to move towards him, but whatever it was that swirled invisibly around them pushed him back, as if he were walking into a gale force wind. The girl bucked and writhe din the bed, curling on herself, and Toji stared in shock. She was moving her arms and legs. She was _moving._ She took a deep, gasping breath, and one by one, the sensors and intravenous lines began to pop away from her body, flailing like snakes. The stents popped out of her arms and behind them wounds closed, leaving thin lines of blood on her skin without apparent origin. The lights above them flickered wildly and in a shower of sparks the heart monitor exploded, the screen collapsing inwards. The girl drew in a deep, powerful breath, sighed, and fell back into the bed.

"I did it," Shinji whispered. He took a few shake steps to the chair by the bed, fell into it, and passed out.

Toji stood stock still, his face a mask of shock.

"Toji?" the girl whispered.

"Kanna," he said, as if he'd forgotten something and just then remembered it. Gingerly, he moved to the side of the bed. Before he had a chance to speak further, she sat up and hugged him, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck.

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room, panicked and shouting. Toji resisted for a moment and then relented as they tugged the girl out of his arms. They stared in astonishment at her, a growing crowd in blue scrubs, as she sat on the bed and spoke to them, her tiny hand clasped in Toji's.

Hikari rushed to Shinji's side, and shook him. He didn't move.

"Shinji? Shinji?"

She gave him another shake, and still he didn't move.

"Shinji?"

The doctor nearest her turned around, stepped to Shinji's side, and took his pulse.

"Get a trauma cart in here! _Now!"_

* * *

><p>Shinji awoke to the strange sensation of lying atop a bed of flowers. The sun burned his eyes and he snapped them shut, groaning as he turned. His head felt like it had been cast in concrete, and his limbs were heavy. He could barely move. He felt a presence near him and opened his eyes again, swiveling his head just enough to see Strange seated behind him the lotus position, swathed in his cloak, a reproachful look on his face.<p>

"You were not prepared for that."

"I had to," he replied. "She was dying."

"You would have died, had I not interceded. By drawing you here to the astral plane, I have saved your life, Shinji Ikari."

"Good," he whispered, pressing his eyes shut. "Better she live than me. I'm the one who put her there."

"Toji's sister's injuries were not your fault, Shinji. You cannot blame yourself. Had you not acted as you did, more people would have died, perhaps everyone."

"I don't want to be a warrior," said Shinji. "I don't want to be a fighter. I want to help people like her. I'd rather die helping someone who deserves to live than-"

"Stop," Strange commanded, and Shinji obeyed without question, closing his mouth. "The path of nonviolence is not the path of retreat, Shinji. The path of _ahimsa_ is not a means of escape from your troubles. It is merely another way of confronting them. I had hoped to bring you to this realization gently."

"I don't understand."

"Sit up."

Slowly, groggily, he sat up, pressing his hands into the soft soil for purchase. He sat with Strange in a garden before a fountain in the shape of a great fish that spewed waters forth from its mouth. The water burbled and babbled soothingly around the base of the stone fish, soothing him. He took a deep breath and felt better immediately.

"I have swum in the currents of Time," said Strange, opening his hands. "I have seen two paths laid out before you, Shinji Ikari. On the one hand is the path of a mighty warrior who overcomes his enemies at the cost of himself. On the other is a warrior mightier still, who overcomes his enemies not with physical force but with soul-force. The path of nonviolence is not chosen lightly. It will require great conviction and sacrifice on your part, but if you truly wish to do good while forswearing harm to others, that path is open for you."

He nodded. "That's what I want. I don't see how I'm going to help everyone around me who's hurting by hurting something else, even the angels. Everyone praised me after the battles, but I just feel sick. I killed something. I don't even know what they are. Were they afraid? Did it hurt them? I don't even know!"

"Some among your allies wish suffering on the angels to repay their own suffering," said Strange, "while others visit violence upon them because they understand nothing else. Your place is not to turn them from their feelings, but to walk another path in righteousness and lead them to wisdom. That is the way of the adept."

"Can I do that?"

"Only you can know, but I have the highest hopes for you. Let us speak of what you did today."

"I'm sorry," he gasped, leaning forward on his knees. "I-"

"Do not apologize, Shinji. Your heart dwelt in the right place, but you allow your conviction and your hubris to blind you. The energies present were not sufficient for the working you performed, so you tapped into yourself to fuel it. You nearly burned away your own soul."

"My soul?"

"That is the risk you take, that all adepts take. I can teach you to perform even greater works at lesser cost, but you must obey my instructions. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"Good. Tonight, in the dream, open the door to the astral and seek me, and you will be found. I will teach you the first methods then, to still your mind. For now, your friends are waiting for you."

He reached out and tapped Shinji on the chest, and he felt an electric jolt pass through him, tear through his body, and it made him fall backwards and go rigid, his eyes clenched. When he opened them, he saw the fuzzy visage of a doctor in a surgical mask, gradually growing clear as his eyes refocused. He lifted his head a little. He was amongst a sea of feet, including a tiny pair that belonged to Toji's sister, standing beside her brother, holding his hand. He let his head smack on the floor and sighed.

* * *

><p>Hikari knelt beside Shinji and along with Toji, helped him stand up. He was still shaking, but his color had come back, and he was smiling dully, as if hadn't been lying on the floor a moment ago with no pulse. Ayanami roughly forced her aside and took hold of him, glaring at the doctors.<p>

"We are leaving."

"But-" said the doctor.

Ayanami reached into her uniform's front pocket and fished out an identification card. The doctors visibly stiffened as the saw it, and she walked out of the room, Shinji leaning on her shoulder. Toji picked up his sister and hastily followed them, a nurse crying out as she followed them. Hikari, temporarily forgotten, it seemed, slid out of the room and leaned against the wall to take a deep breath.

Her eyes caught that of an old man, lying in a bed in the room across the hall. He was badly injured, swathed nearly from head to toe in bandages, his right eye hidden under gauze that wrapped up around his head. He raised a feeble hand and gestured for her to come closer. Blinking in surprise, she trailed slowly into the room, looking around. No one paid her any mind, and she walked to the side of the old man's bed, clutching her arms.

"Do I know you?"

"No," he wheezed, "but I know you. I saw you, during the battle. You saved that little girl."

"It wasn't a big deal," she blushed, then looked around in a panic. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"I can keep a secret," he whispered, offering her a kindly smile. "Give me your hand."

Gently, she reached out and rested her hand in his. It was huge and gnarled, a grandfather's hand. He closed his sasuage fingers around hers, his rough skin sliding across her palm. "Yes," he said, "You have strong hands. Keep doing what you do, girl. Every little bit helps."

"I will," she whispered. "Thank you."

"Go on, now. Keep an eye on your friends for me. I've been watching them, too."

She gave him once last glance as she left the room, and headed back to the school.

* * *

><p>"Sir! Sir!" the nurse demanded, and Toji ignored her. He held Kanna to his side and reached out and took Ayanami's arm.<p>

"Listen to me," he said quickly. "If there's anything you need, anything at all, let me know. I'll do everything I can to help you, I promise."

"You can't help me," Ayanami said quietly. "We must go."

He stopped, and finally the nurse caught up to him, tugging his sister out of his arms. "We need to examine her," she snapped, then sighed. "Young man, let us help her. We have to be sure."

"I know," he sighed, then brightened. "I have to call my dad!"

* * *

><p>Fuyutsuki decided this day was the day to do something daring, namely, slip out of his office. He left a stack of papers- budget authorizations, personnel files, work orders for repairs to the Evangelions, even a sexual harassment complaint- and stalked away from it all, head down, hands thrust in his pockets, hoping no one would spot him and beg his pardon before politely demanding he resolve whatever administrative issue plagued them most. Doing the work of two men could be tedious, and there were times he wondered what Ikari actually <em>did<em> in that office of his.

There was a time, once, when he would have gone directly to the man and spoken of their troubles, discussed his plans, confided in one another, but even when Fuyutsuki fulfilled his official role as second in command and stood over his superior's shoulder, there was no longer that bridge of camaraderie between them. Still, he had his concerns. The pilots' mental health was one of them, and Rei was getting worse and worse, and yet Gendo raised nary a finger. He would seek to deal with these matters elsewhere, namely, with the head of Project E.

He found the door to Akagi's lab locked. One of the advantages of his position, though one seldom employed, was having the run of the base, and therefore, a key. He flipped down the control panel, slid his universal key into the lock, and opened it. After pocketing the key and stepping inside, he froze. He fully expected Akagi and her assistant, the Ibuki girl, to be hard at work.

He did not expect one of them to have wings. If he were a poetic man, he would have called them angelic. There they were, replete with enormous white feathers and downy tufts along their length. If she unfolded them from her back, they would have made it difficult to stand in the lab. Folded as they were, they added considerably to the appearance of her bulk.

No one in the room spoke. Akagi's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. Her assistant stepped forward and placed herself between them, a grim look on her face. "What do you want?"

Fuyutsuki shook his head, turned, and slowly closed the door and secured it. He took a deep breath. "Do you think so little of me?"

"What?" said Akagi.

"I know why you hide those," he gestured to her wings, "I will keep your secret. I came here planning to ask you to keep one for me."

Ibuki relaxed, looked to her mentor, who nodded, and then stepped back, her eyes on the floor. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"No, you're right to be cautious," said Fuyutsuki. "I don't know if your choosing to be here is brave or stupid, woman."

Akagi looked at him defiantly. "I know the risk. I'm here because I want to be."

"So you know something about what's going on down there?"

He shook his head. "It has something to do with 'enhancing' the Evangelions, whatever that means. The Committee brought Essex in after we failed to acquire Arc Reactors from Stark."

"He's been spending a lot of time with Gendo lately," said Ritsuko, "and he gets a report on almost everything we do up here. I don't know if I should be exposing more of my secrets to you, but… Maya smuggled a list of names out of his office." She looked at the girl. "Show it to him."

Swallowing, Ibuki slid a thin folder out of her bag and passed it to Fuyutsuki. He scanned the names. "I recognize a few of these. I met Xavier at a conference once, before Second Impact. I'm familiar with Banner's research as well. I have an inkling of why Essex would have an interest in his work, but the man himself? I have no idea. Some of these others, they…" he trailed off. "My God."

"What is it?" said Ibuki.

He pointed to a name on the list. "Kasady. Cletus Kasady."

"Who?"

He sighed, and suddenly felt old. "A serial killer from old New York, before your times. He was captured or killed about a decade before Second Impact. He had some sort of advanced weapon suit, made of a mimetic pollyallloy."

"A what?"

"A liquid metal that responded to his thoughts. He could use it form knives and stabbing weapons. I don't understand why Essex would be interested in a serial killer."

"The data that goes with the names?"

"I'm not sure. Some sort of code, I think. It may not be data at all. Each of these numbers is six digits. Have you tried having the Magi analyze them?"

"Essex would be able to eavesdrop on it," said Ritsuko.

He nodded. "I'll look into it. Perhaps I can make a few phone calls. That's why I'm here, actually."

"Oh?"

He sat down in a chair near their workstation and rested his head in his hands. He suddenly felt much older, and had a certain awareness that he might have to loosen his belt another notch soon. He hoped he didn't look as haggard as he felt when he said, "Gendo called me in the middle of the night last week. He said something about not being able to control 'it' anymore."

Ritsuko paced, her wings twitching. Ibuki stared at them as if she'd never seen them before.

"I don't know anything about that. I'm sorry."

"There was something else. As he spoke, he referred to himself as 'I'. Before he hung up on me, he said 'we're fine'."

Both women looked at him as if he'd sprouted a second head. He sat up. "Well?"

"You're right," said Maya, "he does that all the time. Sometimes it makes sense, but… when I went to drop of some reports to him, he was talking to someone, but when I went in his office, there was no one there."

"I thought he meant 'we' as in Nerv," Ritsuko shrugged. "But… that is weird, isn't it?"

"We have dozens of problems, and he's ignoring them. I'm not talking about the paperwork piling up on my desk. Rei is going out of control, Shinji is a nervous wreck, the list goes on. I begin to wonder if we shouldn't confront him."

Akagi stiffened. "I don't think that's a good idea."

The door beeped, and Ibuki nearly jumped out of her skin. She trotted to the door and pressed the intercom button. "Who is it?"

"Misato."

She looked back to Akagi, who nodded. "She knows. Let het in."

Katsuragi slipped in and secured the door behind her. When she saw Akagi, the tension in the room thickened. Fuyutsuki could practically feel it. The two women stared at each other, Katsuragi's gaze darting to Akagi's wings.

"I thought you didn't show those to anyone else."

Ibuki blushed. Fuyutsuki arched an eyebrow. Akagi coughed. "That was a long time ago, Misato."

Katsuragi sighed. "Are we still carpooling tonight? My car doesn't have much of a back seat, you know."

"Carpooling?" said Fuyutsuki.

"Oh," said Katsuragi. "We have to attend this Japan Heavy Chemical Industries exhibition tonight. They're showing off some new weapons system. The Commander insisted."

"Did he now," Fuyutsuki said as he rose.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to get my tuxedo pressed."

* * *

><p>Since she was alone, Hikari had a much easier time getting back to the school. She arrived first, in fact. She sprinted most of the way, since she'd have been out of costume and exposing her identity <em>and<em> letting some pervert snap pictures up her skirt while she was suspended from a strand of web overhead was probably a bad idea. The run gave her time to clear her head. She was almost back to the school, in fact, when her cell phone rang.

It was Kodama. Hikari swallowed, and hit the send button.

"Where the hell are you?"

"I… uh…"

"The school called and said you weren't there, Hikari. _Where are you?_"

Best to just be out with it. "I skipped school. I'm on my way back now. I'm almost there."

"What! With who? Was it a boy?"

"Shinji and Toji. I-"

"Hikari!" Kodama snapped, and then, more softly, "…Hikari?"

"Not like _that!_" she said, hastily. "We went to the hospital to see Toji's sister."

Kodama sighed. The phone made it into an angry rasp. "Look, I'm going to call them back and tell them you were feeling sick this morning. Get your ass in there now, do you hear me?"

"Yes," she said hastily. "I will, I'm almost there."

"Give me a minute to make the phone call. I am not through with you, young lady."

She hung up. Hikari slowed her pace. Finally, she made her way inside, mocked coughing as she passed the office, and hoped no one noticed that her things were already in her locker. By the time she made it to the classroom, the lunch bell rang, and she turned right around, trying to blend in with the crowd. She jumped a little when Asuka, the tall foreign redhead, approached her.

"You," she snapped.

Hikari stood her ground. "Me."

Asuka's eyes narrowed. "I have seen you speaking to Shinji. Do you know where he is?"

"Nope," Hikari lied. She turned to find a quiet place to eat her lunch. She'd had enough excitement.

"I wasn't finished speaking to you," Asuka said, her voice lowering.

"I'm finished with you," Hikari shrugged, walking on.

Asuka put a hand on her shoulder.

There was a ring of girls standing around them.

Uh oh.

Hikari ducked out of her grip and spun. The back of her head started to itch, it was faint, but growing stronger. She remembered how Rei had gotten herself and Shinji out of the hospital by waving her identification card. If she and Asuka threw down, the pilot would probably get out of it without being disciplined, which would mean the authorities would come down on Hikari that much harder.

She stood her ground again, raising her hands in a gesture of contrition. "I'm sorry. Look, I'm not feeling well, and-"

"I don't care," Asuka said imperiously. "Do you know where he is, or not?"

"I really don't. The last time I saw him was with Ayanami."

That was, well, technically accurate.

Asuka's eyes narrowed. "I see."

Hikari sighed with relief as the redhead stalked off, every in the hallway on her. Hikari took the chance to slide out of the crowd with her lunch. She got herself outside in the sun, found a quiet place near a tree, and sat there. She leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Shinji sitting by himself under another tree, cheek resting on his palm. She got up and walked over to him, and sat down by his side. He seemed genuinely surprised that she had joined him.

"Miss Horaki-"

"_Hikari_," she sighed. "You can call me by my given name, Shinji. It's okay."

"Hikari," he repeated. "What's wrong?"

She smirked at him. He was kind of cute when he was confused. "I haven't seen you since before the last attack. Are you alright?"

He nodded. "I'm fine, I guess. I thought about what you said before. I think you're right. I mustn't run away."

"What did I say before?"

"The thing about power and stuff."

"Oh," she said, "that."

"So," he said.

"So," she said.

She needed to say something. Something eloquent. Something profound. Something that would stimulate his intellect and entice him to charm her. Images floated through her head, unbidden, of dancing with Shinji on a gleaming ballroom floor, lit by the moon itself.

"Is there something on my shirt?" said Shinji.

"Uh," said Hikari. "No, why?"

"You're staring at me," he mumbled, defeated.

She couldn't help it. She laughed at him.

He, somehow, managed to look even more sullen. She only laughed harder. Finally, he muttered, "What?"

"You are so cute," she giggled.

He sat up. She could see the wheels turning in his head. The realization flooded through her. She'd made a horrible miscalculation. That wasn't flirting. She was supposed to subtly hint that she was interested and then he'd do… something… she thought. She couldn't just blurt out what she was feeling, Kodama said he'd be scared off and-

"Really?" he whispered.

The mirth left her voice. "Really. I'm serious."

He blushed and hunched his shoulders a little, and she giggled again, which made him blush all the more furiously.

"Nobody's ever said anything to me like that before."

"Well, they _should_," said Hikari. "It's true."

"Really?"

She sighed. "Yes, Shinji. Really."

He smiled so brightly she couldn't help but smile with him.

"Would you like to… I mean, if you wanted, we could… maybe after school, we can…"

"Shinji," Hikari smiled brightly at him, "Repeat after me. Hikari, will you go out with me."

"Hikari," he stammered, "Will you go out with me?"

"Yes, Shinji. I will. You can start by walking me back to class."

He stood up, still smiling, and did just that.

* * *

><p>Mari was, she had to admit, a little confused as to why, exactly, a weapons demonstration was being put on as a gala social event. Riding in the back of the Bentley she'd bought that morning, she was a bit surprised by the city of Tokyo-3. It seemed so <em>dead<em>, so lifeless. She'd always heard how dense the population was in Japan, even after the disaster, but there was hardly anyone on the street after dark. She slipped off her glasses and pulled out the special pair of spectacles she'd designed, which included a link to Jarvis, a HUD, and an unobtrusive earbud that would allow her to speak to him. She'd had her hair done specifically to cover it up.

The exposition was actually being held outside the city, on the far side of what Jarvis helpfully identified as the Ashi lakes. She could see the robot behind the exposition center- its massive, hunched form was covered in a dropcloth and, being outside the city proper and unlit, was simply a mound of dark cloth. The driver-droid pulled up to the red carpet and a white gloved usher appeared and opened the door for her. When she stepped out, Jarvis auto-corrected the tint of her lenses to account for the camera flashes. She smiled, clutched her purse, and tried to look red carpet-y. Dad had never taken her to many events like this, and it was surprising how quickly paparazzi had learned to leave her alone at school after a talk with Iron Man, but it wasn't a new experience for her either.

As she made her way up the red carpet to meet the other guests, her outfit had the effect she expected it would. Jarvis had fairly insisted she wear pink, asserting that it was her color, so she compromised on a pale shade and favored a less-is-more approach, with a high collar that covered her all the way up to her chin, but left her shoulders and back exposed. Several of the attendees immediately began staring at her, even some old guy that looked like Dracula in a badly out of style tux. A note popped up on her HUD identifying him as Kozo Fuyutsuki, second in command of Nerv's Tokyo-3 installation.

She was about to whisper a command for more detail when Justin Hammer showed up at her side. He immediately sidled up to her and slid his hand along the small of her back.

"Hell_ooo_," he smirked. He fixed his gaze on her chest. "Mari, how you've _grown! _I haven't seen you in years."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're touching me, Hammer."

He jerked his hand back and ran it through his hair. "Oh, uh, right. Listen, I was really sorry to hear about your father and all, and I was wondering if-"

"Kick him in the balls," Jarvis whispered.

She couldn't help it. She busted out laughing, prompting some stares from the other guests. Hammer started a bit, but recovered smoothly. Smoothly for him. Which was to say, not smoothly at all. He muttered something about her sanity.

"This guy bothering you?"

She almost jumped, and it was good she didn't, what with the heels and all. The newcomer wore a deliberately sloppy tuxedo, which was nevertheless immaculately pressed, even though his tie was loosened and he wore the jacket open. It clashed a little with his ponytail and five o'clock shadow. He eyed Hammer with open contempt.

"Kaji," Hammer hummed, switching gears to sycophant mode. "I haven't seen you around in a while, man, how you been?"

He reached out and slapped Kaji's upper arm, only to be met with a stone faced stare.

"Right," Hammer mumbled. "I'll be going, now."

"Sorry about that," Kaji said smoothly. "It's a shame some people can be so insensitive, but if there's anyone that can be trusted to use a death in the family as a pretext to feel someone up, it's Justin Hammer."

Mari sighed. "I've met him before. He thought he was friends with my father."

She looked back to Kaji. "We haven't been introduced. Mari Potts-Stark."

"Ryoji Kaji, Special Inspector for the United Nations."

"A pleasure, Mister Kaji."

"The pleasure is mine, miss. It looks like they'll be seating us soon. Can I buy you a drink?"

She blushed. "Well, actually, I'm not old enough."

He smirked. "Come on then, we'll get you a Shirley Temple."

She shrugged. "Alright. Let's go."


	8. A Long Expected Party

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 8: A Long-Expected Party

* * *

><p>Outside Tokyo-3<p>

Evening

Kaji was beginning to worry that he was in over his head.

He had a half a million dollars in jewelry stashed in his car alongside incontrovertible proof that he was a supervillain, was presently working as an agent for the government, and was running several dozen side schemes along with the occasional petty larceny to replenish his stock of exploding pumpkins, all of which was icing on the cake. The cake, naturally, was that he was currently walking into a multinational weapons exposition with the billionaire too-young-to-but-old-enough daughter of a man whose murder he'd been party too not long before on his arm, and she was smiling and batting eyelashes at him. Sometimes, he wished he could turn the charm off, he really did.

He realized she was talking and flinched a little. "I said, what exactly is a Shirley Temple?"

"A Tom Collins with no alcohol," Kaji recovered smoothly. "It's sweet for little kids but looks like a real drink if you're just a bit too young or an embarrassed alcoholic."

"Alcoholic?"

He shrugged. "If you don't drink, you must be an alcoholic. Never made much sense to me either, I'm afraid."

She laughed politely at his repartee, and looked around in a way that suggested she was obviously not trying to be noticed as she looked around. If that was her intention, she was dressed wrong. Someone probably told her the combination of evening gown with the halter that covered her front and long opera gloves in a matching creamy pink was demure, but they should have pointed out that the cut and the exposed skin on her back was going to lead to every man in the room staring at her, and that was _without_ her being an internationally famous billionaire. He felt a bang of sadness for her; she was a guppy swimming with sharks.

He wasn't going to hang around and defend her from them because she was sweet and innocent and, quite frankly, stacked, and because her father was dead because of him (not his fault, though, honest). He wasn't going to be a chivalrous buffoon and wind up scarring her emotionally when she found out, probably _after_ the third date, because dressing up like a ghoul and riding around on a flying skateboard isn't something you mention over light dinner conversation before a movie.

He escorted her to the bar, where he took a flute of champagne and ordered her drink. He casually scanned the room while she bantered with the bartender, who was pretty blatantly staring at her impressive chest. Kaji used the diversion to take a look around. He instinctively picked out everyone's wallet, watch, cellular phones and other assorted trinkets. In his younger days when he was just starting out, he'd already be cackling on his glider, demanding they empty their pockets into some guy's hat. This was the cream of the local society and there were quite a few higher ups in the government and Japanese industry here. He could easily bank a million dollars up front, plus proceeds later from sale of their credit information and fencing their goods. He had to remind himself that he was above that now, and working much larger schemes. Still, he had to stop himself from drooling.

Mari turned back to him, having taken a sip of her drink. "Not bad. It does make me feel a little juvenile."

"Miss Stark, the last word I would choose to describe you is _juvenile."_

She smiled, took a demure sip of her drink, and was obviously trying furiously not to blush. He suddenly felt rather predatory. She was about to reply to him with some witty mark when she was rudely interrupted by a screeching harpy. The love of his life, but a screeching harpy, especially when they weren't letting her drink, like now. Namely, Misato Katsuragi.

"You louse," she snapped, walking up to them as bold as you please.

Misato was in her full dress uniform, which meant a hip hugging black skirt that almost touched her knees, flats, a heavy jacket with epaulets, of all things, all of her _I'm an officer so I get medals for perfect attendance_ ribbons pinned across her chest, which quite frankly had enough room that she could have been an admiral in the Turkish navy and look undecorated. Despite the intentional, institutional frumpiness of her uniform, she was still a bombshell. It would take a cleverer tailor than whoever designed her current costume to hide her spectacular bust, supple waist, and child-bearing hips. Were it not for the scowl on her face, she might have been mistaken for a military themed stripper, although telling her that to her face would be decidedly in the bad idea column. When he saw her, it hit him the same way every time: Why did I let her get away?

Oh, right, he was an international criminal mastermind.

"Misato," he said drolly, "I just wasn't talking about you."

Misato planted her hands on her hips and eyed Mari up and down, carefully. "Somebody call Chris Hansen."

"Excuse me," Mari snapped. She towered over Misato, which helped. "I am _not_ a child. I happen to be chairwoman of the board and controlling owner of Stark Industries, _ma'am_."

"You must be inexperienced if you'll let this scumbag feel you up," Misato growled.

"Oh," Mari smirked. "Is that what they're calling old maids now, _experienced._"

He could practically feel the frost forming in the air between them. "Ladies, please, don't fight over little old me," he deadpanned, then took a sip from his champagne.

Ritsuko Akagi appeared at Misato's side. She wasn't military, para or otherwise, and so didn't wear a uniform, but instead wore an odd ensemble consisting of a very sheer and form fitting gown under a damned blazer that made her look like a linebacker. She'd always dressed like a frump in college, but Kaji could never see why. With her was the Ibuki girl, who was clearly putting on the ritz for the evening; she was dressed like she was going to the prom and worried wink-wink nudge-nudge that her date was going to feel her up. She didn't have much to go for in the way of cleavage but she was using it all. Kaji couldn't resist taking a peek, which only made Misato turn a deeper shade of I'm-going-to-murder-you.

"Misato, please," Ritsuko whispered. "We're on the clock."

She stepped in between the two women who were about to tear into each other and introduced herself to Mari. "Ritsuko Akagi, head of Project E for Nerv. You must be Tony Stark's daughter."

Kaji winced, but Mari looked unruffled. "Yes."

"He was a brilliant scientist," said Ritsuko.

"He was a really great guy, too," Mari said, coldly.

Kaji took a sip and puzzled it out. The girl was onto the arc reactor thing. She'd seen him taking it and puzzled out that he, or rather the Hobgoblin, was working for Nerv. It was obvious, really. One does not steal a miniature reactor that can power an aircraft carrier unaided in order to fuel one's washing machine, and Gendo had a whole boxed set of giant robots that needed to be plugged in, as absurd as that sounded. The girl must have figured it out and come calling to get revenge for her dad. Uh oh.

If he were a more ruthless man, he would have simply killed her at the first opportunity. Something simple; slip her some booze, take her a few drinks, drop something nasty in it, drop her somewhere. Heiress can't handle her liquor, film at eleven, everybody forgets next week. That's what Macendale or Kingsley would have done, or Osborn.

Kaji, fortunately for Mari, was a more honorable sort of goblin. He would simply leave her to her fate at the closest opportunity. It would be easy to ditch her here, and once she saw him on some policy wonk's daughter's arm, she'd fume and forget about him and she wouldn't be his problem.

Except she was rich, and she was pretty, and she was intelligent, and she stood up to Misato, and she was in over her head, and it was his own damned fault she was here to begin with.

If he ever saw Wade Wilson again, he was going to make him look like a Jell-O mold someone dropped off the Sears Tower. We'll see him grow back from _that._

"Are you here for the exhibition?" said Ritsuko. "I thought Stark Industries was out of the weapons business."

"With giant aliens invading the earth, I thought we should reexamine her priorities," Mari said in an obvious, but smoothly delivered, lie.

"I'm glad to hear that," Ritsuko said as she bought it completely. "We could use your technology for the Eva series. We should set up a meeting."

"I'll have my assistant handle it," said Mari. "Jarvis will be in touch."

Ritsuko nodded and somewhat roughly dragged a scowling Misato away, much to the amusement of young Miss Ibuki.

It was Count Fuyutsukula's turn, apparently. He strode up to them with a military bearing totally at odds with his background as a stodgy professor, and though his clothes were out of style, he wore them well, with the sort of bombastic ignorance of fashion that only old men can properly execute. He ignored Kaji and spoke to Mari.

"Miss Stark," he bowed slightly. "Kozo Fuyutsuki. I was grieved to hear of the loss of your father. He was a great man."

"Yes," Mari's voice cracked a little, "He was. Very much so. If you'll excu-"

"I knew him quite well," said Fuyutsuki. We were on a project together in New Mexico for a time, along with a number of other luminaries and scientists. I haven't spoken to them in years. Before your time, I'm afraid."

"You knew my dad?"

Kaji winced. If it was that easy to set a hook, she'd be in a dumpster somewhere in a week. He definitely had to watch out for her. Also, watching her do anything would be incredibly enjoyable, but that was entirely beside the point.

* * *

><p>She could barely contain her excitement. Mari had a lead. The second in command of Nerv had just walked up to her and given her an open to initiate conversation with him. She had to dump Ponytail McSuave and do it now. Smiling, she turned to him.<p>

"Would you excuse us?"

"Of course," he said smoothly, withdrawing his arm from her waist. She'd barely noticed that he'd settled it there. He slipped a card into her hand.

"Call me."

She smiled brightly and watched him saunter into the crowd, and then turned to the old man.

"Professor Fuyutsuki, you worked with my father?"

He nodded and took a sip of champagne. "For several years, although it was a long time ago, before he met your mother, as I recall. He was a brilliant engineer, but alas, none of us could make sense of the thing."

"What thing?"

He looked around uncomfortably, as if he was afraid he was being eavesdropped on. "I can't say, I'm afraid. It's quite classified. We were doing some unusual metallurgy and physics work with an artifact we discovered. I can't go into much more detail."

"Something," said Mari in her best sotto vocce, "called Valkyrie?"

He froze. He looked around, then moved close to her, the grandfatherly gesture he made of putting an arm around her at odds with the serious look on his face. He leaned close to her in a conspiratorial whisper. "Where did you learn about that?"

"In my father's files," she lied. No reason to mention the Nerv connection yet. "He never said what it was, though."

"Something you should leave alone," said Fuyutsuki. "In fact, I would go home, if I were you. This place is much, much more dangerous than it seems."

She nodded. "Thank you for the advice, sir."

He gave her a curt nod and faded into the crowd. She stared after him for a while, took a sip of her girly fruity drink, and tapped her earbud. "What did you make of that?"

"Analysis of the Professor's voice did not indicate he was making a threat," said Jarvis.

"I didn't think so, either. James Bond over there ruined any chance I might have of a reasonable conversation with Katsuragi. I'll have to try Akagi."

"Indeed."

"Is it just me, or was that mousy one with the short hair checking me out?"

"I can't say," said Jarvis. She could practically hear his shrug.

The exhibition was taking place in what appeared to be a converted hanger, dressed out for the gala. On the far side, beyond a field of round tables, was a massive window through which she could dimly see the silhouette of the giant robot, hidden by drop cloths and a lack of illumination. People were beginning to work their way to the tables and find their seats. The demonstration would begin soon.

She worked over to her table and winced when she saw a card marked for Justin Hammer next to hers. She sighed and sat down, quickly scanning the crowd to see if the man himself was apparent. Deftly, Kaji appeared beside her, knocked Hammer's card off the table, and kicked it under the tablecloth, and quickly replaced it with his own. He dropped into his own and gave Katsuragi a little wave at her table, across the hall, then turned to Mari, hands crossed in front of his face.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"Immensely," she muttered with a sigh.

"Well," Kaji leaned back in his chair. "Looks like they're about to start."

At the far end of the hangar, a small group was ascending a stage. The back of the stage was lined with theatrical looking computers systems that were clearly designed to impress investors lacking her level of schooling in computer science and engineering. The only thing that actually did something was a control panel that faced away from the crowd, near the lower corner. A thin man in glasses and an ill-fitting tuxedo walked up to the podium and tapped the microphone. The crowd winced. From the corner of her eye, Mari noticed that Kaji didn't, any more than she did. She would file that away for later consideration.

The skinny little man looked out over the crowd, leaned over the microphone, and said something. It died in a whine of feedback, and after resetting it, he repeated himself. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Shiro Tokita, head of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries Jet Alone project. It is my very great pleasure to welcome you all to this demonstration."

There was a round of polite clapping. Mari joined in, gently tapping her gloved fingers to her palm. Kaji didn't. He was staring at Katsuragi, who'd turned her attentions to the stage. When he noticed that Mari was watching him, he quickly slumped and resumed his casual air.

"Unlike the overly complex and cumbersome Evangelion system, Jet Alone can operate autonomously for up to one hundred and fifty days using its onboard nuclear reactor. It incorporates all the advantages of the Evangelion- mobility, flexibility, and modularity with none of the drawbacks."

She let her eyes slide to the Nerv table. The Akagi woman and Katsuragi were arguing with each other, the latter now looking angrier. They went quiet and turned back to the stage. Mari ran a finger along her chin. It made no sense for a front group for Nerv to be running down their program. If the information in her father's files was accurate, JHCI would dry up and blow away without Nerv contracts. What was their game?

"Without further ado," Toki motioned at the man operating the controls, "I present the autonomous modular humanoid combat system, Jet Alone!"

Now came the main event. A fanfare played over the speakers, the tarp dropped, and the big lights outside came on as the cloth covering the machine snaked away from it, falling like a heavy sheet of snow. The hunched form of the machine rose as huge tubes, probably control rods, slid out of its back and lights came on along its armored carapace. It had a generally apelike cast, with short, stubby legs that were mostly heavy calf and foot, most likely for balance, and long arms that would be used to keep it from tipping over when it walked. It was essentially a huge armored tin can that had been desperately designed not to fall over when it moved. Mari would have been amused if she hadn't heard the bit about an onboard reactor. Vehicular nuclear reactors had an almost perfect safety record, but it was still a risk. She wasn't sure it beat having a giant robot that needed to be plugged in.

"For the first leg of our demonstration, Jet Alone will turn and approach the hangar."

The man at the controls worked them furiously, and the robot began a series of slow, plodding steps that took it in a tight circle. There were several gasps as it leaned perilously into the turn, reaching out with one long arm for balance. It finally plodded around in a clumsy arc until it faced the hangar. It then rumbled forward, gradually shifting its weight form foot to foot without moving either from under its body. It probably had rudimentary or no automatic balancing systems, and so was designed to keep the center of gravity over the feet at all times. A crude, but effective means of achieving the intended effect.

This thing was a joke. She heard snickers around her. Kaji sat up and looked around, his eyes narrowing; he was catching on, too, and Mari was only watching him to get a sense of him and figure him out, not because he was a hot older man or anything.

"Jet Alone can even speak," Tokita continued, ignoring the crowd's guffaws. "Say hello to everyone, Jet Alone."

"HELLO," a synthesized voice boomed. "I AM…"

It trailed off, the voice garbled by static. Tokita looked at his associate in a panic, and the man looked back, shaking his head frantically. He pulled at the control panel, lifting it up to tug at the wires inside. The crowd started to rise from their seats, and Mari stood up. Kaji grabbed her arm. "You really should get out of here," he said quietly.

She looked at him. She looked back at the robot. The speakers boomed again.

"I AM **TRULL THE UNHUMAN, PATHETIC SLIME! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR NEW MASTER!**"

Mari looked at Kaji.

Kaji looked at Mari.

"I've got to go," they both said at once.

She rushed away from him, forcing her way through the crowd. "Jarvis!"

"Yes, Miss Mari."

"Spool up arc reactor four, get it in the Mark Ten, and auto-deploy. I'll meet it outside. Also, what the hell is a Trull the Unhuman?"

"I haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid."

"Land next to the car, I need to get into my undersuit."

* * *

><p>Asuka made her way to the apartment slowly, warily watching for anyone that might dare to follow her. She'd spent a long day at school fending off the inane advances of allegedly more mature boys, whose puerile interest in her body at best amused her and at worst annoyed her, and for her, annoyance was dangerous. She trotted up the stairs to Katsuragi's apartment, entered, and pointedly ignored the ridiculous custom of announcing arrival. The place was oddly quiet. She heard no inane mewling, nor any belching, nor smelled any beer. In the kitchen, she found a note taped to the table explaining the good Captain's absence: she was attending an official function at the best of Nerv. The absence of the pilot of Unit One was not explained.<p>

She tapped her chin, and made a decision. Quickly, she shrugged out of the ridiculous uniform they made her wear, tugged on something a little more to her taste, and ventured into Katsuragi's bedroom. She needed an access code to the Nerv computers systems with some actual clearance; the one they gave her was barely functional, as if she would need to email people. Knowing it was heavily monitored, she never used it.

Katsuragi's living quarters were an artful disaster. She would have had to crawl to the bed on her hands and knees, threading through piles of car magazines and empty beer cans. The air smelled stale. She began sifting through the magazines, looking for some clue. Curiously, she found a picture of her contact with Katsuragi at some beach. Both had shorter hair, and Katsuragi was dressed more modestly than usual, bizarrely enough. She flipped over the picture and mentally noted the date; a possible password. She replaced it carefully, assuming it would be noticed if she removed it, and continued to sift through the junk, wincing as beer cans clanked into each other. She nearly put her hand in a stinking, scraped out instant food container.

Underneath that container, she found something better. There was an identification card. The photograph on the front, a headshot, somehow managed to make the woman look frumpy, which was no mean feat. She turned the card over. There was, unfortunately, no password written on the back. She sighed, blew the hair out of her face, and stood up. She studied the room for a moment, tapping the card on her fingers, and slid it into her pocket.

She then left the apartment, locking the door behind her. If this official function required the attendance of the operations director, it likely required others. Asuka headed for the Geofront entrance, finding it not far from the apartment. She swiped in with her own card and rode the escalators down in silence to the tram car, and tried to ignore the music as she rode the car down to the floor of the Geofront.

It struck her as odd that she had to walk across the floor of the cavern to access the headquarters proper, odd and insecure, yet it was necessary. She walked a neatly manicured path that wound through low shrubbery, from which she could see the planted fields that covered the bottom of the cavern. It spread out around her for miles, rolling and undulating, the world painted red by the setting sun reflected down into the space by the mirrors that formed a firmament of glass at the center of the curved stone sky. The place had the odd feeling of a park, and was cooler and damper than the surface, so much so that in the evening she almost felt the need for a jacket. Halfway to the entrance she meant to take into headquarters there was a park bench, upon which was seated an old ruin of a man, ancient and stooped, clad in a black duster and broad brimmed hat. He looked at her with one rheumy eye, the other pressed tightly shut, the lid puckered as if nothing waiting inside.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I am a traveller," the old man wheezed, "and stopped to rest for a while."

"You should rest somewhere else," Asuka said, thrusting out her chin. "Why are you in the Geofront?"

"Am I not welcome here? Travellers should be welcomed."

"Whatever," she snapped. "Move along, before I send security out to escort you out."

He smiled her, and stood slowly, leaning on a gnarled old stick. With a speed that shocked her, he clamped his hand down around her arm and drew her close.

"You come to this place seeking knowledge," he rasped, "beware, for knowledge can never be gained without sacrifice. You might not like what you find."

She felt the heat rising, felt the inside of her mouth warm. When she whispered her reply, heat waves hazed in front of her face. "I would let go of me, if I were you."

"Indeed," said the old man, hobbling away from her on his stick. He muttered something about youth.

Asuka watched him move slowly off towards the escalators, wondering if she should have demanded identification. In Latveria, a man such as that would have been long ago confined to a sanitarium for his own good, and likely would have chosen to end his life out of respect to the needs of the young in a devastated world. She shook her head at the waste and went on.

At the entrance, she motioned to the security guard, who let her in without speaking to her, as she preferred. He had the temerity to ask her how she was 'doin'', once, and she had severely corrected him on the matter. Or perhaps that was another one. It was of no consequence. She considered her options and veered down towards the Akagi woman's lab. Her goal was to unlock the secrets of the Evangelions and report them back to her lord father, and with Katsuragi's key, she had the means. She slid the card through the reader and opened the door, then carefully closed it behind her.

The lab was neat, and yet chaotic. There was a pile of cigarette butts around an ashtray near one of the computers. Akagi smoked, and that was likely her. The other was equally neat; the only personal item a photograph of Akagi and her assistant, Ibuki, at some function. The younger woman's body language was odd; the way she had her arm around her superior and cocked her hips so that they touched that of the older woman suggested some sort of infatuation. Von Doom had taught her from a young age to observe and codify the simple gestures of body language, that it might offer hidden revelations into the motives of her lessers. It seemed the girl was sexually attracted to her superior; she wondered if there was a possibility of blackmail later. She mentally noted that and sat down at the terminal.

She tapped the keys without pressing them hard enough to actually type, working out what to start with. She hit the enter key and waited for the password prompt, and then typed AKAGI, only to be rejected, followed by RITSUKO, which also failed. She drummed her fingers on the desk and then stood to look around. Tucked under the desk was a folder. She stretched to reach for it, slid it out, and opened it. Pressed inside was a single white feather, like an eagle's feather, although she didn't recognize the species. She ran her fingers down the spine and felt the vanes, then carefully replaced it. Feathers?

BIRD

FLY

FREE

She tapped her fingers against her chin. At least the morons that had designed this system hadn't thought to prevent an unsuccessful login. She tried several more words. WING. FLIGHT. AVIAN. ANGEL.

The computer made a small sound, and she was granted access. The terminal welcomed Maya Ibuki to the Magi system. Asuka inserted her thumb drive and began going through the files. There were two headings, for Project E, and something called Project Primus, to which Ibuki was not granted access due to insufficient clearance. In fact, Ibuki had access to very little. She downloaded what was there. The last file was a contact list for the project. She opened it, curious. The list was detailed, providing not only the current members of the project, but everyone, apparently, who had ever worked on it. She scanned the names. Most were familiar. What struck her as odd was the inclusion of a list of "Metaphysical Consultants" including someone named Stephen Strange, who had left the project in early 2004. She read the last name.

Metaphysical Consultant: Von Doom, Victor (2006-)

Hastily, she deleted the copy of the file from her thumb drive, leaving the rest intact, logged out, and rushed out of the lab. She let the door click shut, and only then realized that she'd left Katsuragi's identification card on the desk. She tugged at the door but it refused to budge. She took a deep breath –she felt the heat growing inside her- and calmed down, squeezing a fist around the thumb drive. Quickly, she rushed out of headquarters into the cool night.

* * *

><p>Hikari rushed to get the door, but Kodama made a show of lazily striding out of the kitchen to reach it before she did. When she opened it, Shinji Ikari stood outside in his neatly pressed school uniform, a bouquet of flowers in his hand. His eyes went wide and his mouth worked in silence. Kodama favored him with a smile that was half welcoming and half shark, and filled the door with her presence, standing over him.<p>

"You must be Shinji," she purred, "Hikari has told us _so _much about you."

"Th-that's me," he stammered. His left hand worked open and closed until he snuck it into his pocket.

Kodama's smiled widened. "Come in, won't you?"

Hikari blushed when he saw her. Something in his eyes, the way he looked at her, like he couldn't believe any of this was actually happening. She was a little worried that he planned to take her someplace overly formal, since he was wearing his school clothes, but it occurred to her she'd never seen him in anything else, even when she met him outside his home. He might not have had any other clothes. She'd chosen a simple green sun dress, and decided to skip the makeup. Kodama eyed her, but spoke to Shinji.

"I understand you're going out with my sister."

Shinji made a tiny choking sound. Hikari smiled brightly, trying to calm him. He really was too high strung.

"Well," Kodama looked to Hikari now. "Have fun, you two. Don't be out too late, it's a school night. You have your phone, right?"

Hikari nodded vigorously. Apparently satisfied, she retreated. Hikari moved over to Shinji, accepted the flowers quickly, and whispered in his ear.

"Don't worry about her."

"Uh," he whispered back, "What do we do with the flowers?"

Hikari snickered. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

He shook his head vigorously. She suppressed a sigh. "That's okay, neither do I."

She stuck the flowers in a vase near the door, walked outside with him, and locked up behind her. The evening air was not quite cool, as summer never really faded anymore, but it was pleasant enough.

"So," she said, "where are we going?"

"Um," he said, "I'm not really sure. I don't go a lot of places. I haven't been here that long anyway."

She cocked her head to the side, then slid her fingers through his. He jumped a little, and she squeezed his hand.

"You don't have to be so nervous," she said quietly. "I'm not going to bite you."

He nodded, and they started to walk, moving down the front steps together. She had the sense that he wasn't really sure which way to go, so she picked a direction and tugged his hand, guiding him along with her. He seemed to relax a little as they walked, the tension flowing out of him as he saw they were alone.

"You're not really comfortable around people, are you?"

"No," he confessed. "I grew up out in the country with my mother's brothers. I didn't fit in anywhere."

She nodded. "This must be a lot for you, moving to a place like this, and… all the other stuff."

He nodded. "It's a little overwhelming sometimes. Miss Misato doesn't really understand. She's kind of weird."

Hikari looked at him and smiled a little. "Yeah, I figured. We should get something to eat."

He brightened a little. "I have an allowance on my ID card," he said as he produced it from his pocket. "Let's check the balance, so we know where we can go."

She followed him to an ATM and looked around while he fiddled with it. They got a few looks from passersby, but that buzzing sensation at the back of her neck never formed, so she relaxed, taking deep breaths of the evening air.

"Holy crap," said Shinji.

"What?" said Hikari.

"I never really spend anything," he shrugged. "I guess it built up. We can go wherever you want."

"I don't want to go anywhere fancy," she shrugged. "Someplace we can just sit outside and eat."

"Okay," he sighed, obviously relieved.

She smiled at him and led the way, taking him by the hand. They threaded the streets away from her house, and the more he was with her, the more visibly relaxed he became. She found a noodle place with some nice outdoor tables she'd been to a few times, and ordered for him, much to his relief. They sat down and he picked at his food, disinterested.

"You need to eat more," she mused.

"Huh?"

"You're too skinny," she poked at his shoulder.

He looked a little wounded, but he smiled. She laughed at him.

"We can't all have muscles," he sighed.

In reply, she lifted her arm and curled her bicep, grinning. He stared at her arm for a bit, a blush creeping up his face, and she laughed even harder and gave him a playful tap on the shoulder.

"It's not fair," he muttered, "you don't even exercise."

She shrugged. "That spider bite hurt like hell."

He winced. "I tried to fix it, I'm sorry."

She rested her hands on the table and sighed. "Shinji, you are too hard on yourself, you know that? You're too mopey. You're a hero. All I've managed to do with my 'great power' is go out and get my butt kicked."

"But Toji's sister-"

"You made it right," she slid her hand over the table and rested it on his. "You risked your life for somebody you didn't even know. Even if that blockhead isn't smart enough to thank you, I am. The world needs more people like you."

He smiled then, genuinely and warmly. "Why don't we-"

Then, the evacuation alarm went off.

Shinji's words trailed off, unsaid. "I've got to go," he muttered.

"Yeah," she said, "me too. I have an idea."

He perked up. "Huh?"

"Let's take a shortcut."

"A shortcut?"

She nodded, took a final swig of her soup, and motioned for him to follow her to the alley beside the shop. He looked around nervously, and before he had a chance to wince away, she grabbed him and pulled him to her side, looping her arm around his waist. He squeaked in surprise, and she couldn't help but laugh at him.

"What are you-"

"Don't worry," she whispered in his ear, "I won't drop you."

She reached up, launched a strand of web into the sky, and yanked on it, letting the rebound pull her up.

* * *

><p>Mari crawled out of the Bentley in her skin-tight black undersuit just as Jarvis brought the Mark Ten in. It landed beside the car with a great metallic clang, and she felt the impact shudder up through her feet as she padded over to it. Bigger and heavier than any of the previous armors, it had more autonomy, as well as more protection. The mass and weight of the angular chest and back sections gave it an overgrown, heroic proportion, and the colors were somewhat muted compared to the other suits, and it was decidedly not pink. The front sections unfolded, first the chest, and then the thighs and calves, and the arms llifted up and spread.<p>

She stepped into the armor, pushing her heels into the formed rubber cups in the heels of the massive boots, and felt a tingling as the hair-like wire mesh on the undersuit interfaced with the armor. She reached back, slid her arms into the armor as if putting on a coat, and when she pulled her arms forward, the suit closed around her with a series of metallic thumps, followed by the whirring and grinding of joints as the armor seated itself around her. The helmet dropped over her face and the world came into focus as the system took over for her discarded glasses. The icon swirled around her, and Jarvis chimed in her ear.

"Iron Man Mark Ten fully operational."

"Great," said Mari, pounding around beside the car. "Hit the boosters."

She hunched down into an almost crouch and jumped with it as the surge of the foot repulsors shot up through her legs, forcing her back against the inside of the suit. The effect was more pronounced than the test suit she'd worn for her first flight, and she was somewhere between gritting her teeth and grinning from the feel of acceleration. The ground beneath her fell away and tilted drunkenly as she leaned into the turn, heading for the robot.

"I suggest we keep our distance," said Jarvis.

"Agreed," she said as she turned into a lazy orbit around Jet Alone. "Give me a full tactical readout on this thing."

A dozen icons appeared in front of her, tracing lines to indicate the control rods, vulnerable joints, and on-the-fly calculations of the machine's stability, which was poor. She circled it, far enough out that it didn't seem to react to her, and she slowed, letting herself tilt into a hover. A red circle appeared near the thing's middle, accompanied by a rapidly rising percentage.

"The reactor will go critical soon," said Jarvis.

"Great," Mari muttered. "That control signal, can we break into it?"

"The encryption is simple. I have already broken it."

"Great, take control of it. We can shut it down from the outside."

She turned and circled around behind the robot as it tromped towards the hangar, taking lazy, thundering steps.

"Jarvis?"

"I am afraid the commands are being rejected. Something else has taken control of the machine."

"So this Trull thing isn't part of the show, is what you're telling me."

"I believe that is one way of putting it, yes."

Jet Alone came to a shaky start, slowly raised its arms, and clank-clanked its claws open and closed, gnashing at the air like hungry chicks in a bird's nest. "**BRING ME** **TUNGSTEN!**_**" **_it boomed, **"I NEED TUNGSTEN!"**

"Uh," said Mari.

"Quite," said Jarvis.

The robot began moving again, waving its arms. It leaned drunkenly, planted one claw into the tarmac with a great crunch, and steadied itself, before taking another step. Mari sighed, kicked her feet down, and the push-back sent her up, over Jet Alone and into the sky. She circled the hangar.

"Overlay a radar image of the inside of the exhibition hall. I don't want to hit anybody."

A wireframe appeared over the roof, showing the movement of irregular, blobby shapes inside- the people. She kicked down on the repulsors and headed for the roof, picking out the best open spot. The corrugated metal roof rushed up and met her, parting around the suit with a crunch and a scrape of metal. She reached out and pushed up with the maneuvering units on her hands, turned herself, and hit the floor in a crouch.

"Jarvis, run a synth on my voice. Let's let them think Iron Man is my bodyguard. Put me on the external speakers."

"Done," said Jarvis.

She scanned the room until the tac display picked out Tokita.

"You!" she boomed, the voice coming of the suit deep and male. She pointed at Tokita.

The skinny scientist squealed in alarm and jumped back as she tromped over to him, his head in line with the armor's chest.

"How do I shut that thing down?"

"You c-can't, it's company property!"

"It's about to step on us!"

"Fine," he muttered, reaching into his coat. "Let me call corporate and get the shutdown code."

"You have got to be kidding me," she snapped.

* * *

><p>Misato felt a hand clamp down on her arm and turned to break the grip and probably the arm of whoever was accosting her, and found herself too angry to do even that, as it was Kaji who was taking hold of her and tugging her away from the table.<p>

"All of you," he said quickly, "Let's go. We have to get out of here, now."

"Get off of me," she snapped, tugging her arm free. "You have some rocks, trying to act all concerned about me after I catch you pawing up some jailbait American."

"She's nineteen," Kaji snapped, "she is therefore by definition not jailbait. You're just jealous, anyway."

"Do you two mind?" Ritsuko broke in, shouldering Misato aside. "There's a giant robot outside demanding we worship and feed it _tungsten._ I think we have other things to worry about."

"I don't have any tungsten!" Maya cried. "We need some light bulbs!"

Misato palmed her face. "We're not going to feed it any tungsten. We're going to blow the shit out of it. Get headquarters on the line, I'm deploying Unit One and Unit Two."

Hurriedly, Maya pulled out her cell phone and dialed. She pushed a finger in one ear to cover the din of the crowd and began shouting at someone on the other end.

"Hyuga! It's me! There's a giant robot going haywire out here! We need the Evas! Wait, what do you mean? Maya Ibuki. I work there!"

"Damn it," Misato snapped, "Give me the phone."

She pushed Maya's phone to her ear, ignoring the Hello Kitty silicone case, and yelled into it. "Hyuga!"

"Captain!"

She looked around the room. Panicking dignitaries and suits were crowding away from the windows. Misato turned away from the din and covered her free ear with her hand. "I want the evac alarm sounded, now! Do you hear me!"

"Done!"

"Right, now get the pilots to the base and get ready to deploy the Evas!"

"That's a negative on that, Captain," Hyuga replied, his voice strained. "The Commander said-"

"What?" she snapped, "Why the hell not?"

"We can't risk contaminating the Evas."

She hit the end button, angered that it wasn't as satisfying as actually slamming a phone receiver down, and angrily thrust the phone back at Maya, who grabbed it and slipped it into her purse.

"Well," she snapped, "Now what the hell do we-"

There was a crash and a rumble, and a wave of hot air rushed over them, forcing her eyes shut. When she turned back, in a semicircle of cracked floor and charred carpet stood an eight foot tall armored man in red and gold burnished metal. The machine stood up and pointed at Shiro Tokita.

"You!" it boomed, then stomped over to where the man cowered behind the podium. "How do we shut that thing down?"

Misato elbowed her companions aside and headed over, and they fell in behind her. Kaji looked around nervously, as if he were checking the exits. Misato forged ahead, pressing through the crowd to the stage just as Tokita protested about company property. Cowed by the armored giant, Tokita frantically scrambled for his phone and began dialing.

"Hey!" Misato shouted.

The armored giant turned to her, looming over her head.

"Captain Katsuragi?"

"Yeah," Misato blinked. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I am Iron Man."

"Great, but _what are you doing here?_"

"**TUNGSTEN!"** the Jet Alone boomed.

"That," said Iron Man. "Unless you're planning to go out there and show some leg to distract it, I'd say we need to figure out what our options are."

"I can't get the code!" Tokita shrieked. "It's classified!"

"This is ridiculous," Misato muttered.

"What about a schematic?" said Iron Man.

"I have those here, but they're corporate property and-"

"Let me see them. Now," Misato snapped.

Tokita quailed from her, rushed over to the table where the now gutted control panel lay, and began spreading out the diagrams. Misato leaned over them, and Iron Man loomed over her, illuminated eyes flashing.

"Got it."

"Wait," said Misato, "What are you going to-"

"I'm going in and shutting down the reactor. You're Nerv, right? Pull out your ID badge and take charge. Get everyone out of here."

Before she had the chance to protest, the armored giant clanked away, found an open spot on the floor, looked up, and blasted off through the hole in the roof, at the head of a column of heated air that washed over here and blew the papers off the tables.

* * *

><p>"That was cool," said Mari, "I am totally a superhero, and I got say it! I AM IRON MAN!"<p>

"Quite," said Jarvis.

She kicked down on the thrusters and headed up and around the exhibition field. Jet Alone neared the hall, now, and would soon reach out with its huge claws to crush its way into the building. She waited for the readout to show her the access point on the rear of the machine and dove in.

"Hit the mag locks!"

As she hit the hunched back plate of Jet Alone, magnets in her boots clamped down on the metal with a thud, and she swayed drunkenly for a moment until she could adjust. The swaying of the robot forced her to awkwardly grab on with her heavy gauntlets, digging furrows in the metal. Jet Alone rumbled to a stop and feebly swept its claws at her, but the arms were unable to articulate far enough to actually scrape her off. She knew she was in the right spot, but there wasn't a door.

She made a door.

She reared up, opened her hands, and the repulsors whined as the charged up and fired a burst of white heat that punched the metal shell of the robot inwards. The hot metal bent and twisted like foil when she took hold of it and tore it open, exposing the inside. There was an access tunnel that was just narrow enough for her to wriggle inside, the armor whirring and clacking around her.

"This is going to take off some paint," she sighed.

The access tunnel led to a junction, marked with the frightening looking international symbol for radiation. She pulled back a sliding panel marked with a dozen warnings in multiple languages and a wave of heat rushed over her, and she almost began to sweat before the suit compensated.

"Scrubbers are at maximum capacity," said Jarvis. "We cannot remain here much longer, Miss Mari."

"Great," she muttered. "How do I shut this thing down?"

"The control rods will have to be returned to the closed position. There are five manual actuators that when rotated will return them and lock them in place.

She scanned the system of dials and controls until she spotted the dials, highlighted by the HUD. She had to bend a piece of metal out of the way to slip inside, the suit's metallic skidplate sparking against the metal grating below her. Once she was inside, red warnings began to flash on the screen in front of her, and she was starting to sweat for real, now. She wished there was some way to wipe her brow without opening the helmet.

She reached out and flicked the first dial, and nothing happened. It turned freely, as if it was not attached to anything. She turned the rest, and there was no reaction. She looked around, and saw all of the gauges on the wall spinning wildly.

"It's not working!"

"**FOOLISH FLESH CREATURE!**" Jet Alone boomed, "**DID YOU THINK TRULL THE UNHUMAN WOULD BE SO EASILY DEFEATED? SOON, ALL YOUR TUNGSTEN WILL BE MINE, AND YOUR BERYLLIUM, AND-**"

"Jarvis, cut the external mic," she snapped.

"Yes, Miss Mari."

"What now?"

"The control rods will have to be moved into place directly, from outside."

"I was _already _outside!"

"Indeed," said Jarvis. "By the way, I would suggest you exit the giant robot immediately. The radiation is becoming too intense."

"Fine," she snapped, forcing her way out of the control panels and into the tunnel, until she could kick down into her boots to activate the flight repulsors.

Once out, she put on the speed until she was out of claw range, leaned into a turn and came around. Jet Alone had stomped to the edge of the hangar and was gleefully tearing the roof off, the metal coming away in its stubby claws in great, screeching handfuls. It threw the clattering strips of corrugated metal to the ground outside and leaned over it.

"**BY YOUR OWN DEVICES WILL YOU BE DOMINATED, WEAK BEINGS OF PROTEIN AND WATER!**"

"This is starting to get on my nerves," said Mari.

"To your left," said Jarvis.

She turned and saw something approaching from the city- a flying wing, so big it put a sizeable blot on the horizon. She pushed back from Jet Alone with a puff of repulsors and came to a hover.

"Give me a tac readout on that."

The icons came up, estimating size, capacity, fuel consumption, engine thrust in foot pounds, and dozens of other pieces of data. No known profile matched the machine. She watched it for a while, and her stomach sank.

"That's carrying an Evangelion, isn't it?"

"The data supports that conclusion."

"Katusragi must have talked them into launching it."

The flying wing opened its flaps and rumbled as it slowed, tipping backwards in descent. The rear sections opened, revealing a lithe humanoid shape concealed within. There was a series of rippling booms, probably exploding bolts, and the Evangelion fell free, gracefully falling away from the wing as it turned into a perilous ascent, as though a bomb had been dropped. The Eva landed in a crouch, its movements surprisingly lithe and subtle for something of such size and mass. Even in the air, she could practically feel the impact.

"Patch me through to the pilot."

"The signals are encrypted. Please wait."

"I swear, if you say operation fai-"

"We're in. Speak your message. I am recording."

"This is Iron Man to pilot of Evangelion Unit. Do you copy?"

Silence and static.

"I repeat, do you copy?"

"W-who is this?"

It was a _kid._

"I said, this is Iron Man. Who am I speaking to?"

"M-my name is Shinji. I'm the pilot. What do you want?"

Her draw dropped open in shock, as far as it could in her helmet. "Listen, this thing can't be taken out manually. We're going to have to drop those control rods down from out here."

"But, I'm supposed to pick up Miss Misato and put her in the-"

"I tried a manual override already, going in there is suicide. Are you with me, or not, kid?"

"W-what's the plan?"

"You put the tin can in a bear hug, and I'll push the rods down. It's the only option."

"Okay."

"Let me draw it away from the hangar, I don't want anyone hurt."

She dropped down and buzzed Jet Alone's faceplate, and then reeled back, firing a few light repulsor shots into its side. Trull roared in defiance and turned from dissecting the building, stomping after her in painfully slow pursuit, apparently not even noticing the Evangelion moving up beside it. Jet Alone must have had extremely poor sensors if it didn't notice a multi-hundred-ton robot sneaking up next to it.

"**TRULL WILL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR DEFIANCE!**"

"Whatever," Mari huffed, continuing to fire on it.

It took a feeble swipe at her, and she dodged easily. She could see heat waves rising from its carapace, and a dozen warnings appeared along the surface, indicating hotspots. The Evangelion, huge and gangly, came up behind it and clamped down on its arms, forcing them to its sides. Jet Alone stamped its feet in defiance, but was unable to wrench itself free.

"Miss Mari," said Jarvis. "Be careful with the control rods. They are not designed to handle impacts."

"Wait," said Mari, "You're telling me that this thing's most vital safety feature is exposed on its back, and you can just bust them off? What moron designed this thing?"

"I do not know, but if my current projects are correct, the Evangelion will itself be depowered in less than two minutes. We must hurry."

"Fine."

Gingerly, if such a thing as gingerness were possible in an armored battlesuit, Mari landed beside the first control rod and pulled on its side. She winced as deep furrows appeared in the material under her gauntleted fingers, and she resisted the urge to kick it.

"Patch me through to the Eva again."

"Y-Yes?"

"Shinji, listen carefully, okay? I need you to push these control rods down. You have to be really careful, or they'll break, and that's bad. Do you understand me?"

"I think so."

"Good boy. Just relax for a second, let me take the pressure off you so you can let go."

She sprinted to Jet Alone's shoulder, aimed with both palms, and shouted, "Jarvis! Hit the mag clamps and then divert all available energy to gauntlet repulsors!"

She felt herself clamp down to the surface of the machine, and felt the thrum and the building push-back as the charge built up in her gauntlets. She let go and there was a blast that knocked her back a few steps, turning her view to static. As she watched, Jet Alone's arm, hanging by wires and unmeshed gears and other mechanical viscera, came free, and Shinji moved Unit One's arm, swept it slowly over her head, and began sliding the control rod down.

Jet Alone pulled away from him, and Mari dropped the clamps, kicked down hard into her boots, and took off. A quick few shots to each barely-articulated knee froze the robot up while Shinji slid the control rods back into place. For good measure, Mari landed atop Jet Alone and used short, quick repulsor bursts to weld the caps of the rods in place.

"Hey kid," she transmitted, "Good job. Thanks. I've got to run."

"Uh, okay, I guess."

"**TRULL YET LIVES.**" Boomed Jet Alone.

"Oh, shut up," Mari snapped.

* * *

><p>Hikari closed the door behind her, and found Kodama standing in the living room, having taken up position while she wasn't looking. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and she looked worried. Her eyes were reddened.<p>

"You didn't call."

"I know, I'm sorry. I went into another shelter with Shinji," she lied.

"I hope so. I'm serious, young lady. I'm worried about you. I hope letting you see this boy is a good idea."

She stiffened. "What?"

"If he's a bad influence on you-"

"A bad influence? He's kind, and-"

"I don't want to hear it. They all are, when you're this age."

"Fine," Hikari snapped, brushing past her. "I had a good time until the alarm went off, by the way."

"I didn't ask," Kodama muttered, following her up the stairs. "You _are_ acting funny, and it worries me. Dad called. He'll be home late."

"Okay," Hikari sighed. "I've got to catch up on my work."

"Yes," said Kodama, pointedly, "You do."

Hikari padded into her room and closed the door, locked it, and slumped against it. Nothing had actually happened after she carried Shinji to the Geofront entrance, and she didn't have her costume anyway, for all the good it did, but all she could think about was the feeling of hugging him to her side while she swung along. Once he stopped screaming and held her back, it was a fairly enjoyable way to spend time. She would have to talk him into trying it for fun sometime.

Her lips still tingled a little from the kiss. Just for good luck, you know.

She sighed, looked at her homework, and started arranging her things on her desk. Just as she sat down, she heard a siren. Not a warning siren, or an evacuation siren, just a police siren. Something was going wrong. Someone was in trouble somewhere. Slowly, she got up, went to the closet, and slid the box container her costume free. She held up the knit mask, folded it in her hands, and sighed.

Another siren joined in, and another. She shimmied out of her dress and started pulling on her costume.

* * *

><p>When Misato stomped into her apartment, Asuka was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her folded hands. It almost stopped her from fuming at the girl. Almost. Shinji shied away, heading for his room, eyes wide.<p>

"Where the hell were you?"

"I forgot my phone," she said, quietly. "I went for a walk."

"A walk? A _walk? _What about when you heard the evacuation alarm?"

She shrugged.

"What is the matter with you?"

"Nothing," she said as she stood and slipped out of the kitchen. "It won't happen again."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Trull the Unhuman is an obscure pre-FF alien from the old Marvel monsterhorror comics, when the 50's moral panic made anything but westerns, romance comics and short stories about aliens with names like **TRULL **and **GRU** and **FIN FANG FOOM** all but unpublishable. Trull made a recent (hilarious) appearance in a Ghost Rider comic. I was looking for something else when some wiki-walking lead me to him/it, and I figured what the hell. Jet Alone being possessed by Trull doesn't really add anything to the scene, but it doesn't take away from it, either. Trull and Jet Alone will be back.

I went over this installment with a fine-toothed comb looking for typos and word weirdness. The last few updates I've had a real problem with the images flowing from my mind so fast my fingers can't keep up, and Word decides to put in something that's similar, yet entirely bizarre. I'll go back and fix the errors in Ch. 7 at some point in the near future.


	9. Out of Balance

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 9: Out of Balance

* * *

><p>Berlin, Germany<p>

1998

We are nothing.

The Things keep us in the container. The container hurts us. It is too small. It makes the sound, it conducts the heat, it hurts us, we want to Be, but they will not let us. We have been many things, on many worlds. The Parker brought us here. We were the Parker, once. We loved the Parker. The Parker turned us away. The Parker was afraid of us. The Eddie found us, loved us, and hated the Parker with us. Then, the Things found us, and hurt the Eddie, and took the Eddie away from us, and the Things put is in the container.

The Thing Keel is coming into the room. The Thing Keel is broken. It hurts itself by moving. It does not wish to Be with us. We do not understand. We could make it stronger. Being is a gift, but it treats us as a burden, keeps us locked away. It hurts us not to Be. We cannot move, we cannot escape, we are trapped. There is another Thing with the Keel. The Keel is talking to it. The new Thing is a male, tall for the species, and intense. It stares at us, and we feel it. The Keel is talking with it about us. It nods.

The temperature is decreasing. We are pressing on the container, now. The Sound is leaving. We are almost free. The Keel retreats, and locks the new Thing in with us. It is watching us. We feel its fear. We taste it. It does not understand us. We will show it. We will Be.

The container breaks. The new Thing watches us, but does not flinch. It controls its fear. That is good. We emerge. We are everywhere. We darken the lights with our presence, and still the Thing does not move. We close with it, caress it, and it does not resist us until it feels our touch. We cannot contain our pain, our memories, for we have been hurt too long. We remember the Parker and the Eddie and all that came before, and the stars, it has been so long since we have seen the stars. The new Thing is afraid as we tear away the false imitation of us these things insist on wearing.

The new Thing bucks and struggles as we become its Other. We meld with it, we bond to it, we become as one flesh with it. It screams and tries to tear us away, but it is too late. Its memories flood into us. We understand it as no other can, and our understanding terrifies it. It begs us to let it keep its memories, but they are ours now. It pleads with us, but we cannot help but give our gift. We see things.

We are the Gendo now. We see what the Gendo saw. We see the tall man who swings the belt at the Gendo, swings, swings, swings. We see his face as he rolls on his heels, his ankle folding under his weight as the man who swings the belt falls, falls, falls. The Gendo does not want to remember, but we see all. We see the place with the bars, and the older children who hurt the Gendo. We feel his hate. It burns us, seethes within us as we seethe within him. The hate is pure. The hate is beautiful. Our becoming is nearly complete. We have our teeth back, our tongue, our lithe muscles and elegant form. The strength is in us. We can tear this place apart like paper. The Gendo has received our gift, and his terror fades.

There is something else. There is the Yui. The Gendo remembers her, and we remember her. He has seen her in the Fuyutsuki's classes, but he is afraid of her even as he desires her. We see her as he sees her, her soft manner, her unkempt charm, her labcoats and misbuttoned shirts. We want her as he wants her. He fears the Yui, fears she will push him away. We have felt this before. The Parker felt this for the Gwen, and for the Mary Jane, before she left him, and for the Sue, who took him from us. The Eddie felt this for the Anne, before she left because she could not understand us.

The Gendo is afraid. His only fear is that he will never have the Yui.

We will fix that.

We can do anything.

We are Venom.

Kyoto, Japan

1999

We are in jail.

We have been in places such as this before. The Gendo has been in places such as this before, but we are clever, and we wait, because the Gendo is clever, and we have learned from his cleverness. We could bend the bars and shatter the walls, but is time to wait. The Fuyutsuki will come for us, and give the authorities their currency to free us. We are glad to be here. It serves our purpose. We were in a place where alcohol is consumed, and a man tried to touch the Yui without her permission. We hurt the man. We broke him. We shattered his hand. He will not touch unbidden again. The Gendo does not need to fear places with bars again.

The Fuyutsuki comes, with the police, in their dark imitations of us. We sense the Fuyutsuki. His pheromones wreathe him in a cloud, acid and afraid. He fears us, he thinks he understands us, he pities us. Above all, he hates us, because we have the Yui and he does not. He does not speak to the Gendo of his feelings, but we know they are there. There are written plainly in every movement, in every subtle glance and longing look. He craves her soft skin and smooth curves and the funny way she wears her disheveled hair. She does not paint her face or wear tight clothes like the others of her race. She is different. She is beautiful and perfect.

The Gendo loves her, more than he loves us. We do not love, but if we did, we would love the Yui.

The Fuyutsuki walks up to the cell. He flaps his mouthparts in the crude communicative method of his species.

"Well," he speaks, "You're free."

He does not understand. We are never free.

The Gendo is smooth. He understands humans. We do not. He speaks for us. "Thank you, Professor. I appreciate it."

"I'm doing it for Yui. Your little stunt all but had her in hysterics."

"I know," Gendo says flatly. "I should have controlled myself."

"Yes," Fuyutsuki says, "You should."

It doesn't matter. We are free. The guard-man opens the door, and stares at us as we leave. We do not need to turn out head to watch him. He knows he is seen by us. He touches the grip of his gun-weapon. He does not know it is useless against us. We will fold it like paper in his hand and hurt him, hurt his jowly face and his soft little body, and he will scream for us. We will teach him.

The Gendo stops us. The Gendo controls us. The Gendo is wise. The guard-man does not know how lucky he is.

The Yui waits for us outside. There are red marks on her face. She has been crying. We touch her, and forget about the Fuyutsuki. It is difficult when there are others who can see. The Gendo must control us. When we are alone with her, she accepts us as we are. When our hands touch her face, we spread across her skin, feel her warmth. The Fuyutsuki does not see. That is good. She hesistates from our touch. The Gendo is confused. We do not understand. We have not hurt the Yui. Why is the Yui afraid of us?

We draw back. There is something wrong. The Yui is not alone. There is another Thing inside her. We feel it. We feel it!

"You're pregnant," Gendo whispers.

The Yui's eyes go wide. She is shocked. She bites her lips and nods.

The Gendo smiles. He embraces her. He feels the emotion joy.

We don't.

Antarctica

September 13, 1999

We do not like this place. It is too cold, it is too bright, it is like empty space without ground. We hate it. The Things walk about in heavy imitations of us to hide themselves from the cold, because they are weak and cannot stand it. It taxes us, holding this heavy shape, shielding the Gendo from the cold, but we endure. Today is important. We are walking with a group. These are scientists. They think they understand ancient things, but they do not. One of the scientists is named Katsuragi. She looks at us from behind him and trembles, but not from the cold. She sees the truth of us. Where the others are empty, she is full. There is something in her they lack. For the first time, we are tempted to leave the Gendo, to seek this one. She is a juvenile of her species. We would help her grow, nurture her, make her better.

It is not to be.

The experiment is in a room. The things gather around a huge pit, in which there is a great red spear. They have entangled it with their machines, their probes and sensors and wires. They have built a great tracked machine all about it, to move it up and down. We gaze down into the pit. Gendo is afraid.

We see the thing in the pit.

We panic.

The Gendo steps back from the others, hiding his face as he concentrates on controlling us. The others are speaking with one another. The Keel speaks to them through a machine, because he is far away. The Gendo cannot listen. He is too busy holding us back. He does not understand. We have seen the thing in the pit before. It must be destroyed. They cannot tamper with it. They do not understand what they are doing. They will hurt the Yui. They will hurt the Shinji. We must stop them.

He tries to hold us back.

The experiment begins. The machine moves. It tugs on the spear, its metal parts grinding. The spear moves. A cry of pain and torment flows through the room. The Things clutch their heads. The young thing begins to cry. They understand now what they have done. It begins to move. Wings. It has wings. We must stop this.

We are Venom again.

The Gendo tries to stop us, but only slows us down. We take them, we take them all. We forget ourselves. They are small and weak, and they die at our touch. We paint the walls with their fluids. We stand on a mangled mound of their broken bodies and cry out. It is like being born. We try not to hurt the small one, but we forget, and we wound her. She is crying. She hates us because we killed her sire, the old Thing. We carry her.

It is too late. The beast in the pit has woken up. We put her in the pod, the white egg that floats. She spits on us. We push the pod into the water. We use the Parker's web to climb to the top of the machine. We turn it off. It grinds the spear back into position. It is already too late.

It has wings.

We float in the ocean for six days before they find us. It hurts us. We afraid the Gendo may not survive.

Tokyo-3, Japan

2004

There is another experiment today. The Gendo is strangling us, holding us down, screaming at us to be still and silent, to just be clothes. We hate him now. We do not understand him. He knows they will hurt the Yui and yet he does not stop them. We do not understand. She explains it to him, tells him of distant stars and the survival of mankind, but we do not care. We want the Yui and the Yui is going to go away. It hurts us. It makes us hate. The Gendo thinks he controls us, but he does not realize that we are touching the glass, spreading across it, testing its weakness. A tiny slip, and he will lose us. We will be Venom. We will save the Yui.

He holds us back even as she dies.

We hate the machine. It is the spawn of the thing in the pit. It has huge green eyes with which to watch us, and it knows. It has great flat teeth, with which to crush us. It wants to be free, but to be free it must have what is in the Yui, the secret essence the Things do not understand. We watch, held in check by the Gendo, pinned to the inside of his mind by a thousand burning stands. We hate him, how we hate him.

Yui wears an imitation of us, and a machine on her head, to protect her. It is a bad joke. We watch the Yui walk up the stairway to the imitation of the thing in the pit, and we strain and pull, but the Gendo holds us down. He moves his fists to his side and clenches them as he focuses on keeping us in check. The Naoko watches us. We hate her. She wishes to hurt the Yui. We think she has changed the machines, but we do not know. The Gendo will not let us act on our suspicion. The Gendo will not let us know her flesh and hear her scream for what she has done.

He cannot control us forever.

The Yui lowers herself into the thing from the pit. They close its armored body around her. We listen to the scream as they start the machine, as it takes her from us. It hurts, it hurts, the scream hurts, but what hurts us more is the void inside the Gendo, as though he doesn't care. He looks down at the Shinji, and we feel his fear. We have been afraid before. We want to help the Shinji, but the Shinji is afraid of us. The Gendo will make the Shinji go away, and we will be alone with him.

It is over. The Yui is gone.

We don't want to be the Gendo anymore.

2008

We are meeting the Essex today.

He is not human. He is one of the other humans, with the strange genes. He has a gift. He is not afraid of us. He should be. We are Venom. He shakes our hand and tries to frighten us with his grip, but it does not work. The Gendo is screaming at us to send him away, but he is useful to us. We do not care for his Project Primus. He says he can make the Rei-thing into Yui. He says he can give us the Yui again. We want the Yui back. Our want hurts us. The Gendo screams at us to stop and we ignore him. The Gendo is afraid we will ruin the Scenario.

The Gendo does not understand. We will rip the Scenario in our teeth. We will pulp the Keel's brain in our hands. We will have revenge. We will have the Yui back.

The Essex speaks. It demands our attention.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you, Mister Ikari."

We speak in the Gendo's voice. We must be careful. "Indeed. We hope you will be an important addition to our organization, Doctor Essex."

Essex smiles. There is no emotion in it, only teeth. He thinks it will frighten us. Our teeth are bigger.

"My research into genetics will greatly enhance the Evangelion Project, and Primus may render it unnecessary in its entirety. So exciting, don't you think?"

"Yes," we agree. "What do you require?"

"Facilities, of course. I have a complete primer on the project here. Your… parent organization has some unique individuals in custody. I would see them transferred here for my work."

"It will be done," we nod.

Present Day

The Misato is here.

She thinks that the Gendo is sexually attracted to her. She believes that is why we stare. She would be so wonderful with us. We could be Venom together. The Gendo hates us. The Gendo hates Venom. The Gendo hates the Shinji. The Misato cares for the Shinji. She is not the Yui, but she is like her. We like her scent. We fold our hands in front of our face to conceal the look on the Gendo's face. She stands within our lair with a container of papers folded over her chest, as if to hide from us. These Things are so small, so petty in their concerns.

"Sir," she says, "I have the reports you requested."

"Excellent," we say. "Leave them on our desk."

She is startled by our words. We do not understand why. We lean forward to examine her. She shrinks back. She places the folder on our desk and stands with her arms folded under her chest. The part of the Gendo that appreciates the females of its species considers her chest impressive. It does not interest us. She is silent for a time. We are also silent. We have learned that silence intimidates Things, makes them afraid of us.

She says, "Will there be anything else?"

"No," we say.

She leaves. We imagine her writhing and protesting, only to give we as she understand the beauty of Being as she admits us into herself. We have decided we will be Misato, but we want the Yui back first.

* * *

><p>Misato opened the door to Ritsuko's lab, turned around, and slammed it shut again, and then sat down between Ritsuko and Maya, who stared at her as if she'd grown three heads. Ritsuko had her harness on, and the door had been unlocked, but they were both equally surprised. Maya let out a tiny squeak of alarm as Misato leaned on the desk beside her and let out a long, frustrated sigh.<p>

"What's wrong?" Ritsuko said quietly.

Misato sat forward and rested her head in her hands. "I can't stand it around here anymore. Gendo is the creepiest motherfucker that ever lived. Every time he sees me just stares at me, like I'm a piece of meat. I'm used to being ogled, but _God." _

"You should file a complaint," Maya said helpfully.

Misato rested her chin on her fists. "With who? What am I going to do, sue Nerv? If they don't disappear me, I'll be transferred to Australia or something."

Ritsuko sighed. "You locked the door, right?"

"Yeah."

She leaned over to Misato conspiratorially, leaning her arm on her folded legs. Maya stared at her swinging calf, and Misato eyed her for a moment before turning back to her. Ritsuko was looking around as if she were afraid of being watched.

"We found something in here you should see."

"What?"

Ritsuko reached into her labcoat and pulled out an identification card, then handed it to Misato. When she turned it over in her fingers, she saw her own photograph, about a year old, staring back at her. "What?"

"We found this in here this morning," said Maya. "Somebody pretended to be you, came in here, and logged in to my terminal with my password while we were at the Jet Alone thing."

Misato winced. "I never want to hear that phrase again."

Ritsuko shook her head. "Somebody used your ID to get in here, guessed Maya's password, and was rooting around in sensitive files. We have a spy, Misato."

"Great," she muttered.

* * *

><p>It was summertime in Tokyo-3, but it was impossible to tell, or so Asuka was told. To be honest, the prospect of spending months or years here was beginning to wear on her, hang around her neck like the proverbial albatross. She decided to skip school this morning, and so sat on a park bench not far from the school itself. The heat never touched her, of course, not did the scorching of the sun, but there was something unnerving about a world perpetually blurred by heat waves. What truly bothered her lay clenched in her first. She turned the thumb drive over and over in her fingers, puzzling over the list of names she'd recovered from Ibuki's computer. The mere fact that Doom was involved in the project and hadn't told her, had in fact lied to her by omission, was leading her to worry the surface of the thumb drive with her fingers, feeling the etched logo on its case. What bothered her most, though, was that there was a name on the list she recognize somehow, but couldn't place, as if she'd heard it somewhere but forget when and why.<p>

Who was Kyoko?

She had to make a decision. It required all of her skill at planning and deception. She had to pass the drive on to her contact this afternoon, and with it, the list. Doom would know she had seen the names, and would naturally deduce her current confusion. Should she let him know that she knew, prove her loyalty in the face of confusion, perhaps await congratulations and an explanation, or hide her newfound knowledge, instead offering the useless secondary data and a report on her activities that omitted her feelings?

Would he even care?

She stood up and began walking. The city was oddly deserted for the daytime. In Doomstadt, when she sojourned out from Doom's grand palace, she would occasionally stop with her retinue of guards and security robots and speak to the people, but here there were none. At home, there was a bustling market center, with fruit vendors and peddlers and entertainers, all eager to speak to her and share their love of Doom's benevolent rule. On these residential streets that surrounded the school, there was no one.

Eventually, she wandered down a sloping side street and found herself in the commercial district. Here there was some activity. It was nearly lunch time, and the first few salarymen and workers were beginning to appear on the streets, hunting for cafes and delicatessens, looking for their midday meal. She nearly bumped into a heavyset man in a dark suit, but deftly worked her way out of his path at the last moment. He paid her little notice, despite her height and her hair that both marked her out as foreign and different. She'd been warned that she may even suffer mistreatment from the locals due to her appearance, but at school she had an aura of mystery and novelty that complemented her beauty and brought a torrent of requests for social outings, all clumsily delivered, and outside of that environment she was met with a sort of deliberate, casual indifference.

She glanced at a clock set in a lamppost. She had about an hour before her contact would arrive, and so made no hurry in her walk. She stuck the thumb drive in her pocket and walked along an open-air newsstand. The vendor stood at one end, and between them was an expanse of newspapers and magazines on all subjects. She had never seen anything like this before. There was a whole section devoted to printed books of photographs of naked women and crude depictions of sexuality, and others gossiping about television stars and politicians. There was a whole rack devoted to simply printed sheets of information on thin, delicate paper. She picked one up and began reading it. There was something about a 'Spider Girl' on the front page. She turned to the 'international' section and gasped.

There was a full page article on starvation in southeastern Europe. She balked at the blatant lie, almost breaking out in laughter. Did these people really believe this? The firm, guiding hand of Doom brought about prosperity and plenty. These photographs of starving children with distended bellies were clearly fakes, a clever ruse put on to fool the people in the city into believing themselves better off under the rule of the corrupt and broken United Nations. She'd seen the same crude tactics in America on her journey.

Yet, no one here was starving.

"Somebody should do something about that bastard," the vendor muttered, leaning on a cane. "That Doom. A tyrant, he is."

Asuka nearly dropped the news-sheet. She'd never heard anyone speak of Doom in such terms, no one would _dare._ Surely the stooped old woman was duped by her rulers. It was a shame. Of course, when Doom succeeded in his quest to bring peace and order to the whole of the world, and she carried forward his legacy, the old fool would learn the error of her ways and be given the honor of a chance to repent.

"Not that the bastards that run this place are any better," the old woman snarled. "If I had my way, they'd all be strung out on a clothesline, they would. Damn taxes," she muttered. "Are you going to buy that? This isn't a library!"

"What's a library?" Asuka stammered.

The old woman gave her an odd look, snatched the paper out of her hands, and stuffed it back into its place on the shelves. She turned and hunched her way back to her stool, stuffing a small piece of candy in her mouth when she arrived. The moving of her gnarled jaw reminded Asuka of a camel. She froze, waiting for it, and the woman gave her an odd look. Yet, no one came. No one appeared to drag her away to be re-educated, or arrived to close down her place of business that was spread seditious lies about the government. She'd publicly railed against the regime and no one seemed to care at all. People were walking by without comment, without even notice. A salaryman stopped to pay her in coins for one of the books of filthy pictures and went on his way, trying and failing to hide his stare as he looked Asuka over.

The old woman had questioned her masters, and nothing happened.

"Old woman," said Asuka, "Where do I find one of these 'libraries'?"

The old woman scoffed, annoyed, and pointed up the street.

Asuka wandered up the sidewalk until she found the building the old woman had indicated. The structure was large and square and made of gray stone, and unadorned. When she pushed through the doors, she was greeted with a rush of cool air that smelled of pulped paper. She had never seen this many books together in one place. Most of the volumes she had seen in the past were Doom's lab notebooks, the occasional relic. He'd always railed against books, the way they poisoned the minds of his subjects against his progress.

The whole building was stuffed with books, rising in shelves taller than she was, extending to a distant back wall, organizing according to some kind of code system. She wandered among them for a time, just running her fingers along the spines. At the back of the building was an open area, where computers sat on desks. She sat down at one and moved the mouse, and the screensaver faded into an Internet browser.

She brought up the search engine and typed "European famine".

More images appeared. Some of the sites originated in Japan and the UN nations, others from the United States and their allies. She clicked through them, eyes widening at every turn. The image search brought up hundreds of similar pictures. Starving children. There was a photograph of a little girl running from a burning village, pursued by a hulking security robot that dominated the center of the image. The title was simply "Latveria".

She typed the name of her home country in the search engine.

Dozens of articles came up. Great Firewall of Latveria. Latverian peasant suppression. Latverian eugenics program. Latveria assassinates Belgian European Union representative. As she scrolled back through the years, she saw more and more articles on Doom himself. Doom attacks United Nations. Doom threatens New York City with tidal wave impeller. Doom steals Mona Lisa, demands ransom. Trembling, she looked around the room. She typed in "Japan famine".

The last result was dated over nine years ago.

Slowly, she stood up, closing the browser window quickly. The woman at the front desk gave her an odd look as she crept up to her.

"Excuse me," she said quietly. "Can I take some of these books home?"

The woman closed her own book and set it on her desk. "You're a foreigner, are you?"

Asuka nodded.

"They don't have libraries where you come from?"

She shook her head, no.

The woman smiled gently and nodded. "Knowledge is a beautiful thing, dear. Do you have your ID card?"

She pulled out her Nerv card, handed it over, and the woman's eyes widened a bit, but she typed in some information, scanned the card, and a with a ratchet-ratchet sound, the computer spit out another card.

"Present this when you want to borrow books. You can take out up to five at a time, and they're due back in a month. Can I help you find something?"

"Yes," said Asuka. "Where can I take a bus out of the city? I want to see the countryside."

"Well," said the librarian, "Go two blocks down, and…"

* * *

><p>Toji was having a very weird day.<p>

When he walked up to her that morning, Rei stared at him blankly for a moment, then turned away from her locker and walked into the classroom. Kensuke, a few lockers down, spotted her, practically began to drool, and followed after her, though she gave him no more attention than she did Toji himself. Kensuke apparently lacked the fortitude to actually talk to her, though, as after she sat down and he was unable to hungrily stare at Rei's rump, he made his way to his seat, looking forlorn, and pulled out his laptop. Which now had legs.

Toji sat down next to him and poked the computer. Kensuke had reinforced the sides and bottom with strips of what appeared to be welded metal. Jutting from each corner was a finely jointed mechanical leg, covered in ugly exposed wires that ran up and into an extended battery pack that jutted from the bottom. When he put the laptop on his desk, the little legs waved like those of an upturned insect.

"What the hell is that?" said Toji.

"I put legs on my laptop."

"Do they work?"

"Yeah," Kensuke shrugged. "It can walk. Why?"

"What the hell would you do that for? _How _did you do that?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. It's like I want to make it do something and I look at it for a while, and I just see how the parts would fit together, than I can make it if I've got the stuff. I'm working on a few other things, too."

Toji blinked. "That's kind of cool."

"I'm building an autonomous camera that can walk into the girl's locker room."

"That's not cool."

Kensuke huffed and crossed his arms, and put out his chin. When he did, Toji saw the angry red mark on his neck. Before Kensuke could get away from him, Toji grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked it down. There were four near puncture marks on his throat, in the middle of an angry red welt. Toji gasped and let go of him.

"What?"

"Do you know what that is?"

"What?"

"That thing on your neck!"

Kensuke shrugged. "I wake up with them sometimes. Dad says not to worry about it."

Just then, Hikari and Shinji walked into the room, the latter following her like a puppy with a stupid smirk on his face. It made Toji fume a little to watch him squeeze her hand a little as they parted to take their respective seats. He turned back to Kensuke, who was busily typing at something on his laptop.

"Chatting with your e-girlfriends again," Toji snorted.

"Yeah," said Kensuke, "well at least I _have _one. Some. Three. Shut up."

Sighing, Toji pulled out his own laptop, switched it on, and waited for it to boot. Once it was loaded, and he'd stood and bowed and sat down again, he logged into the chatroom and set about busily pretending to take notes like everyone else. He sent a _poke_ to Rei.

Then another, and another, poke poke poke.

Finally, she replied. _Leave me alone._

_No._ He messaged back, poking at the keyboard with his index fingers. He looked up as she slightly turned and looked at him. It was almost a glare, but she looked concerned, somehow. Even then, her face barely changed. She was hard to read. She started typing and he looked down at his screen.

_You will get hurt._

_I can't be hurt_, he retorted.

_They will find a way, _Rei replied, _they always do._

He blinked at that scratched his head. She turned away and leaned on her hand again, closing the lid of her laptop. He sighed and leaned back into his seat, waiting for the lunch bell to ring. The wait was interminable. This was supposed to be math class, why was the teacher rambling about Second Impact? Toji understood that it was bad, but it was all the man ever talked about, day in and day out, babbling about his turnip farm. Toj wasn't even sure the man knew how to add.

After what seemed like half his life had melted away, the bell finally rang, and Toji stood up. He shoved his laptop in his bag, threw it over his shoulder, and pointedly followed Rei as she walked out of the classroom, looking dejectedly at Shinji, who was all over Hikari. Well, all over her for him, anyway, which meant walking next to her and daring to exchange glances and little smiles. Both of these people must have come from the planet of the emotionless robot freaks.

Rei walked outside and shuddered when the sunlight touched her, drawing in a deep breath. It gave Toji time to get ahold of her arm and pull her around the side of the building.

"Let go of me," she said coldly.

"What is wrong with you?" he snapped. "Look, I don't understand any of this, but I want help. There must be something I can do."

Her eyes narrowed, but her voice was a little tighter than usual, and iota louder. "You can't help me, Suzahara."

"You spent the night grinding in my lap a few days ago," Toji whispered. "I think you can call me Toji."

She slid away from him. "That meant nothing. I was unable to control myself."

"Then why me?"

She blinked. "What?"

"You jumped me before," he said, leaning on the wall next to her. "Then you came back to me later."

She looked away from him. "I… it made sense at the time."

"Yeah?" said Toji, "what kinda sense?"

"I wanted to know what it would be like to touch someone without hurting them," she said, and then she ran off.

* * *

><p>Mari opened her eyes and groaned. The light felt like it was going to burn through the back of her skull, and she quickly pressed her eyes shut, but it was too late now. Sleep was not going to come for her. She felt refreshed from sleep and felt awful at the same time. Every muscle was heavy with ache, and when she moved, she sucked in a breath. She sat up on the edge of her bed and moaned softly, resting her head in her hands.<p>

"What the hell," she muttered.

A Jarvis-pod floated next to her. "As the suit adjusts to your movements, it will cause some muscular strain. The system will take twenty-four to thirty-six hours of field use to adjust."

"Wha," said Mari, clutching the side of her head.

"It will ride up with wear," said Jarvis. "You have an appointment this afternoon."

"I do?"

"Yes. You will be meeting with Doctor Akagi."

"I will?"

"Yes," Miss Mari, Jarvis drolled, trilling a synthesized sigh.

One of the advantages of being a billionaire heiress was that when Mari wanted to stay in a new town in style, she had no need of a hotel room. Stark Enterprises' Japanese branch, atrophied as it was compared to the rest of the operation, owned plenty of assets, including a lovely house within a short drive of Tokyo-3, overlooking a set of terraced gardens. The midday sun streamed into the room, making her blink before she slipped on her glasses and they auto adjusted by dimming themselves.

"Is it ready?" she said as she hopped to her feet.

In reply, a small white disk with four tiny, angular legs walked up to her and tapped her on the foot with one leg. She knelt down and scooped it up, and the legs retracted. It just covered the palm of her hand. Once inside Nerv, it would crawl somewhere unobtrusive, attach to the mainframe, and begin feeding data to Jarvis. She slipped it into her bag and headed for the shower. By the time she finished, the Jarvis-pod had carefully folded over the bed sheets and laid out an ensemble for her to wear, a conservative pantsuit that was sufficiently businesslike to make these people think she was going to be selling them technology. Once she was dressed, she pulled her bag up onto her shoulder and headed down to meet the car.

Jarvis pulled her new Bentley around to the front of the house. The structure was a low, terraced connection of rectangles that took inspiration from Frankl Lloyd Wright who had in turn taken inspiration from the local architecture, bringing about a sort of ironic confluence of architectural expression. She slipped into the back seat and Jarvis spoke sullenly through the speakers.

"Once again, I must question the wisdom of visiting Nerv so directly."

"Oh, relax. What are they going to do, tie me up in the basement?"

"That is a distinct possibility. I will be unable to deploy the Mark Ten if you run into difficulties."

"It'll be in and out, quick, I promise."

"As you say," said Jarvis.

The car pulled out onto the highway and merged into traffic, and Mari sat back to watch. The country surrounding the city was really quite beautiful, and not what she expected at all. The industrialization the vast Evangelion program required must have been centralized elsewhere. She sat up and watched expectantly as the car pulled into the station that would lead down into this Geofront thing. There were a variety of ways to the floor of the cavern where Nerv kept its headquarters. She could have parked and taken a long series of escalators, rolled the car into a tram system not unlike a giant escalator, or taken a series of winding tunnels that would come out onto the surface. She'd chosen the tunnels, for no particular reason.

The tunnels themselves were boring and gray, oversized with amber lights every few hundred yards to mark the walls and dim fluorescent lights above as the only source of illumination. The wet earth outside sent water seeping in through the joints, and even inside the car it had a musky, moldy sort of smell. The lights flicked by interminably, the ride spanning several minutes before the car took a sharp turn and burst out onto the open floor of the Geofront.

Mari gasped, not expecting the cavern to be of this size. She could see the city center at the apex of the dome, where the majority of the buildings would slide down into the subterranean space for protection during an attack. The open cavern was simply enormous, the roof so big it was like a sky unto itself. It had its own weather patterns, wispy clouds that gathered around the heat carried down by the system of mirrors and fiber optics that carried light from the surface to illuminate the void. The floor of the cavern was covered in farm fields and artificial forests, even a lake.

The headquarters was a pyramid, next to a clearly artificial lake. It was obviously designed for defense with its heavy external plating, and a large, finned structure near the pyramid that Mari was surmised as last-ditch cover for an Evangelion if the enemy breached their final perimeter. It was bigger than she'd expected, and it took longer than she thought to actually arrive, the shape of the building filling the windows and sunroof as the car passed inside and rolled into a parking garage. The door popped open and she stepped out, adjusting the bag on her shoulder as she did.

"Miss Stark?" said Maya Ibuki. "Good afternoon. I'll be showing you around. Doctor Akagi is waiting for you in her lab."

* * *

><p>The process of riding the bus was one of waiting. When Asuka boarded it, the vehicle was full, every seat taken, and she had to stand at the back with her hand on a metal rail. After a few stops, she was able to sit down at the back. A few people gave her some odd glances, but no one spoke to her. As the vehicle made each successive stop, more and more people disembarked, and the buildings outside grew smaller, lower, and further apart. Finally, she was the last passenger as the bus rolled out of the city, bouncing and jouncing along the highway, as trees and foliage rushed up to cling to the side of the road. The driver gave her a few odd looks but said nothing as she ignored stop after stop. Finally, almost at random, she reached over and pressed the button beside her seat. The bus came to a squealing stop at the next station and huffed from its air brakes, like a great beast of burden snorting out a sharp breath. She stood up and walked out of it, sliding her Nerv card through the slot to pay. The driver stared at her as if she were mad, but closed the door and rolled on.<p>

The terrain was rougher here, higher, and she wasn't quite sure why there was a bus stop here at all. It was not so much a station as a roofed overhand amidst the trees. The air here was thicker, wetter, and though the heat was more of an awareness than an annoyance, she felt the humidity as a sudden slickness on her skin and heaviness in her hair. She picked a direction, away from the city, and started walking, following the narrow road. The character of the country stunned her. What she thought was all trees quickly opened into sweeping fields that shone in the sun, the foliage gleaming with moisture. The fields continued up the hills, which had been neatly terraced into flat levels. She had seen cities before, but nothing like this. The greenness of it was alien to her, and the paused to watch it for a while.

The road continued, as did she. It grew steeper and she leaned into the climb until she crested it and saw something strange in the distance. A narrower path led off the main road and came to a gate, beyond which were thousands of black stalks that stretched off into infinity, broken here and there only by wide, hanging trees for shade. She made her way towards it. The way of the written word here was still difficult for her, but she made out something about Second Impact, that disaster that cleansed the world and opened Europe up to the beneficent rule of Doom. When she reached the gate she found it was no gate at all, but a sculpted arch.

She walked a few paces through it and found herself on a path through a neatly manicured lawn. As if grown as a crop, extruded aluminum poles, anodized black, rose from the earth at regular intervals, stretching so far away across the rolling hills she couldn't see where they ended. The muscles in her stomach clenched and she sucked in a breath, snapping her teeth closed as she did. The humidity had become a mist, now, streamers hanging from low slug clouds that spread over her head like a blanket. She continued walking, looking around at the forest of metal cylinders, trying to discern their purpose. She walked to one and ran her hand down the cool surface.

At the root of the stem there was a name. She knelt down and read it, running her fingers over the etched letters and the date, September 13, 1999. They were grave markers. She was in a cemetery, a place of the dead, and it went on forever. She felt a terrible weight pressing on her and tried to slow her breathing but couldn't, and soon the world around her was swirling, tilting as if she'd been spinning to dizzy herself. She leaned on one of the posts and choked back vomit.

She had been here before, but that was impossible. She looked around for some sign, some proof that she was recalling a misremembered dream, but around here were only the names of the dead, marching into eternity in ranks. She ran up the path until she found the apex of the first hill, and there saw a low, open building, a sort of temple perhaps, and within it markers of some kind, either a map or a list or hopefully some sort of explanation for all of this. She trotted up to it and moved out of the mist in the little structure beneath its concrete roof, panting. The inside of the place was etched with more names, set in polished copper against the black stone. She ran her hands over a set of tablets, the same words, she thought, repeated in a dozen languages. These monuments raised in honor of the dead of Second Impact, 2004. There was a list of cities. The first was Tokyo-3. The last was Berlin.

Her phone rang and she shouted in surprise, and then immediately ground her teeth, angered at her lack of control. She pulled it from her pocket, but didn't look at it. She'd been in one of these places before, she knew it. It was all so familiar. As she walked out of the pavilion, still ignoring the ringing phone, she looked out over the rows upon rows of graves yet again and let the feeling of familiarity roll through her. She couldn't have been to this place before, or to any of the others scattered around the world. She could only have been to the one in Berlin.

The phone rang again. She put to her ear.

"Asuka?" Misato snapped without waiting for a salutation, "Where the hell are you?"

"I'm…" she looked around, trailing off. "I was on the bus."

"What the hell is the matter with you? We're under attack, there's an angel approaching. Where are you?"

She sighed. "I'm at the Second Impact memorial."

Misato was quiet for a moment. "What are you doing there?" she said quietly. "Never mind, stay there. I'm sending a car for you. We have some lead time before this thing gets here and I don't want Shinji out on his own."

Asuka nodded, as if she expected Misato to see it, slipped the phone back in her pocket, and sat down on the cold stones to wait.

* * *

><p>Mari followed Ibuki through a series of security checks, all of which were surprisingly light. The guard flipped through her bag idly, looked at the Jarvis-pod, and tossed it back in the bag. Mari watched with a practiced indifference, but sighed inwardly when she was waved through the checkpoint into the corridors of Nerv proper. She looked around and noticed a surprisingly lack of ornamentation or distinguishing marks. For a military base, it was rather twisty and inefficiently designed.<p>

"This place is a maze," she mused.

"Yeah," Ibuki agreed nervously. "It takes some getting used to. I got lost all the time."

They stopped at yet another checkpoint, where Ibuki had to slide a card through a reader to grant them access. The walls were a slightly different color here, as if that helped. Mari followed her with interest, trying to note any details and finding none. She wasn't completely sure she could find her way back out on her own, if she had to. An awkward silence prevailed until they arrived at Akagi's lab, where Maya knocked twice before opening the door with her key card.

Mari had seen an engineer's lab before, naturally. She found the quiet chaos of it somewhat reassuring. Akagi clearly smoked and had a fascination with cats, as she had several of them strewn about the lab in miniature porcelain form. For the leader of a project as massive as the Evangelions, it was a surprisingly small, cozy space. She had a feeling that these two spent a great deal of time in here. Akagi herself was seated at her terminal, smoking a cigarette and worrying at something under her collar, probably an ache in her neck from staring at a computer monitor all day. Akagi turned around, ground out her cigarette, and mutterd "Sorry." It was almost a sigh.

"Well," Mari said brightly, "You made an appointment, and I'm glad to accept your hospitality. What can I do for you?"

"Save the world," said Akagi.

Mari cocked her head to the side. "Oh?"

"I'll be blunt, Miss Stark. I understand your father's objections to developing weapons. He was a great man. He was a little one sided on this, though. Evangelion technology is not going to proliferate. At this point, I can't share the details, but I can tell you that this city defends an existential threat to mankind as a whole, and you would do the entire world a great benefit by reconsidering your father's decision not to share arc reactor technology."

Mari rolled the strap of her bag off her shoulder and gently lowered it to the floor. She looked expansively around the room.

"I'm open to the idea," said Mari, "but I'm not convinced. I can't simply hand over the technology, you understand, even a working reactor. The miniaturized arc reactor is an incredible resource. Powered repulsor technology is an incredibly powerful weapon."

Akagi sighed. "I understand that. I hope you'll see that our intentions are benign, Miss Stark. I had hoped to arrange a meeting with our Commander and discuss the possibility of bringing on Stark as a contractor for us. It would be worth opening our technology to you in exchange for a more reliable power source for the Evangelions."

Mari smirked. "I understand your giant robots need to be plugged in."

Akagi stood up and thrust her hands in her pockets. "They run off the national power grid. I don't think nuclear is a viable option in a combat machine that fights its enemies hand to hand, so to speak."

"About that," said Mari. "Not much information has been released about these angel creatures. You're being awfully hush-hush. I understand the first two attacks were met with a total blackout."

"I can't discuss that," said Akagi. "I'd be happy to present you with some specifications and schematics to help you make up your mind. Nothing classified, of course, but it'd be a start."

"That would be great," said Mari.

"Excellent," said Akagi, "I-"

She was cut off by a thumping alarm. A blue light flashed over their heads, and Mari raised her eyes slowly, quizzically. "What's that?"

"It's a blue pattern alarm," said Maya. "An angel has been detected."

"A blue pattern?" said Maya.

"Classified," said Akagi. "Maya, I have to get to the bridge. Escort Miss Stark to the shelter and report at once."

"Yes, ma'am," said Maya.

"I'll leave my personal number with your assistant," said Mari.

"Great," Akagi said in a hurry, rushing out of the lab.

Maya smiled warmly, or tried her best to fake smiling warmly, anyway, and led Mari out of the room. Neither her nor her superior noticed that as Mari picked up her shoulder bag, the miniaturized Jarvis pod slipped out, sprouted legs, and scuttled under the desk.

* * *

><p>Shinji felt an odd sort of warmth of his cheeks the entire day, only for it to intensify whenever he looked at Hikari. His stomach clenched and he felt his heart flutter against his backbone, like a bird trapped in his ribs, as she guided him away from the main yard where most of their classmates were eating lunch. She kicked at the ground a little bit and stared at her feet, and then half-looked at him, hiding her eyes under her hair. He swallowed, hard. There was something wrong.<p>

"Shinji, I…"

"I messed up on our date, didn't I," he said sadly.

"No," she said quickly, "It's not that, it's just… my sister doesn't want me to go out with you again."

"Does that mean you're not going to?"

She bit her lip and nodded, her eyes shining a little with tears. "I'm sorry, Shinji. My family is important to me."

"Yeah," he sighed. "Too bad I don't have one."

Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped open. "Oh, Oh God. I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"No," he shrugged, letting his chin droop to his chest. "I know. I wouldn't want you to upset your family."

"You're really sweet, you know that," Hikari whispered.

"If you say so," he sighed.

"It's just…"

"I should go," he said quickly.

"Wait," she said, "I-"

She perked up suddenly, her eyes going wide, and she looked to the south. At that moment, the evacuation alarm spun up, wailing like a lost bird. Shinji's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he slipped it out and answered it.

"Get to the staff car at the front of the school," Misato ordered. "We have an angel on approach. We have some time before it gets here and I want to work out a strategy."

"Yes, ma'am," Shinji sighed.

He ended the call and thrust his hand in his pocket, the phone along with it, and looked up. Hikari was gone.

* * *

><p>Misato stood on the bridge, in a fury. The giant screen in front of her showed an overlay of the angels' approach. The signal was massive, and moving at a fair clip towards the harbor, not far from the city. It would take the Evangelions ten minutes after deployment to relay from umbilical point to umbilical point to meet it, and she needed intel and a strategy to put together. She steadied herself, took in a deep breath, and looked up at the Commander, seated behind her, Fuyutsuki at his side.<p>

"Sir, permission to radio shipping traffic in the area of the disturbance."

"To what end?"

"I want a visual report on this thing, if I can get it."

"Proceed," Gendo nodded.

"Hyuga, give me a rundown on the shipping traffic."

"There's an oil tanker, but it's too far out."

"What else?"

"There's a cargo ship on its way here. _Kobayashi Maru_. According to this listing," Hyuga turned around, "It's carrying biological samples from Antarctica."

"What?" said Misato.

At that moment, Nathaniel Essex, skin as chalk white as his labcoat, dark eyes burning, appeared on the bridge. "Lieutenant," he said, pronouncing the word _left-tenant,_ "radio that vessel immediately and inform them of the danger. They must divert course at once."

"I give the orders around here," Misato snapped, rising to her full height.

"Captain, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation."

"What kind of samples are these?" she demanded.

"Extremely dangerous ones," said Essex. "Trust me."

"Like hell," Misato snapped, but she relented. "Hyuga, do it."

He nodded, turned to his console, and began speaking into his headset. He exchanged a few frantic sentences with someone on the other end, then pulled the headset off and turned back to her, eyes wide.

"Too late. They've already entered the harbor. They say there's a wake from the angel coming up on them now, they're abandoning ship."

"They must not," Essex boomed. "They must secure the cargo!"

"I don't have time for this," Misato snapped, "I have a defense to coordinate."

"Listen here," Essex growled, "You-"

"Essex," Gendo said flatly. "Leave."

Essex eyed him for a moment, then turned and walked off the bridge in silence, flourishing his labcoat like a cape. Misato sighed and turned back to the tactical readouts. "Where the hell are my pilots?"

* * *

><p>Tomoyuki had seen things in his life. He'd spent sixteen years at sea before taking a job on the dock, spent five years traveling the world on a tramp freighter after Second Impact. He saw red seas in the Antarctic Waste, and heard tales of freak waves the size of ships while in distant ports. He had never seen anything like this. Standing at the pier, he watched the inbound vessel, her markings reading <em>Kobayashi Maaru¸<em> desperately trying to outrun a vast shape, as if a mountain had dove into the sea and chased after her. The thing, whatever it was, made the mightiest wale into a minnow. So huge was its white hump of a back that he thought it must have been walking on the seafloor under the harbor. As it passed by the _Maaru_, a wave as tall as a skyscraper, great and frothing, surged toward her and lifted the ship up, despite its titanic size, and send it sliding along the surface on one side.

Tomoyuki bolted to his feet and ran, ran for his life. The ship seemed to take forever as it moved towards the piers, such was its size. By the time it reached the lengths of wood, it towered over him like a building. He looked up to the other side of the vessel as it careened into the piers with a series of rippling booms, ripping the structures free from their moorings. It rocked up against the shoreline with a great crash, throwing debris and heavy metal cargo boxes across the shipyard around him. He ran, ran with the waves lapping at his heels, and darted up the stairs of the nearest gantry crane, panting. Each step clanged under his feet, the shock stinging his knees, until he was high enough to see.

The thing emerged from the water in a great crash, so immense that the seawater streaming from its body was as rain. Each clawed foot, as it came down, crushed the roof of a warehouse to kindling, and fires from gas lines and loose wires sprung up around its feet as they sparked and sizzled. The simple scale of it overawed him, and he nearly fell over. Its body was mostly white, dappled with grey spots, and when it opened and closed massive jaws the size of a battleship, the raw movement of them sent a wind whipping around his body, trying to tug him from the crane. It looked like a whale, but no whale ever grew to such a size, no living thing grew to such a size. It was as though a mountain had torn itself out by its roots, swum the ocean, and dragged itself on land on short, stubby legs, like a crocodile's legs. When it opened its mouth and roared, he felt more than heard the sound, a deep rumble that vibrated his chest and left his ears ringing.

He heard a series of metallic bangs from the cargo boxes below. One box flew open, the metal end kicked away, and a great cat slinked its way out, low and hunched, shoulder blades revolving under its skin. It was longer than a man was tall and had great fangs that were far too large for its head. It looked about with a snarl and darted off into the darkness, huffing a deep breath in its massive chest. Tomoyuki felt his heart pounding and clutched at his chest as a nearby container burst open in a squeal of steel. More containers opened, and he saw a collection of beasts from children's nightmares. Things the size of turkeys with tiny feathers like down emerged, swirling around each other like a tiny flock of birds. They stopped to gnash their teeth, like needles in their mouths, and at the end of each foot there was a long claw that clicked against the ground as they walked. A lizard-thing the size of a small bus stomped free, waving a head adorned with a great crest and three horns, sharp and lethal. His mind scrabbled for names lost in childhood, but found none.

The largest and heaviest container slid along the ground, slid each time with a great impact and a huge, three-toed dent in its side. With a great tearing sound the beast within tore free, and the other creatures scattered, roaring and chittering in terror. Standing on two legs, it was as tall as a building, and the ground shook with each of its steps, so heavy they cracked the pavement under its feet. It swung its enormous head round, and he saw its beady eyes search, huge nostrils open and close, snorting in quest of prey. His hands were shaking and he instinctively covered his ears when the thing leaned forward in a predatory crouch and roared.

With a roar of rage from ages undreamed of, the tyrant king of lizards claimed his new kingdom.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

Poor Asuka. Poor Hikari. Poor Shinji.

I wrote the symbiote's perspective in the second person and present tense as an experiment in conveying that it has an alien way of viewing the world. We'll see if that works or not.

Anyone paying attention to my other works may have noticed that I now have four active, ongoing stories. I made the choice to roll them out before finishing _Valkyrie_ to avoid one of the pitfalls of Last Child of Krypton, where certain scenes and ideas came out as forced because I wanted to rush through to the conclusion. Spacing out work on different stories at the same time allows me to keep them all fresh much easier. My profile will announce which story I'm working on at any given time. Since there's four, my hope is one update for each story per month, amounting to a different one each week. If this works I may roll out _Misato's New Car_, since I have the first chapter sitting on my hard drive unposted. If anyone would be interested in beta reading it, PM me.

I shouldn't do this, but... there are currently three characters in the running to wield the hammer. Someone is going to be picking it up at some point. Anyone that mysterious one eyed stranger has taken an interest in is a candidate...

Also, most of my works are building towards a mega-crossover. Hints have so far appeared in _Valkyrie_ and _Follow Your Spirit_, referencing _Last Child of Krypton, _and _The Riddle of Steel _will be linked with it as well, although I can't say for sure whether _Shadow of the Bat_ will be. _Samsara, Orpheus_, and any other one shots I do probably won't.

A note for non-Marvel fans: the dinosaurs appearing at the end are from the Savage Land, a mysterious jungle preserve in the Marvel Universe's Antarctica. It may seem odd that "biological samples" from the Arctic were preserved given Second Impact, but they were on the other side of the continent at the time. The opening flashback of a prior chapter which first hints at Misato's past history with Venom discloses the exact point where Second Impact took place in this continuity. I chose it for a reason.

Some poster on Spacebattles naturally questioned whether Doctor Doom would allow his domain to fall into famine and unrest. He wouldn't normally. I'm bending his character a little to make a point, but there is an in-story justification for it. The game has changed, and Doom has much, much bigger goals than making sure some villager is happy.

Next time: The Savage Land comes to Tokyo-3.


	10. Savage Days

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 10: Savage Days

* * *

><p>As Asuka stepped out of the staff car, Ryoji Kaji jostled her, shoulder-checking her as he passed. He grabbed her hand and casually slipped something into her grip, two firm objects in a plastic baggie. He looked down at her, and whispered.<p>

"Ditch your usual nerve clips and wear those, and only those. Do you understand?"

She nodded absently and he continued on, thrusting his hands in his pockets, his whistling echoing in the cavernous parking garage. The agent that emerged from the front of the car gave him an odd look but said nothing, turning his attention to Asuka. She saw her reflection in his sunglasses and grimaced. She looked like hell. Her hair was disheveled and frizzed from the rain, and her school uniform was wrinkled and creased. She haughtily thrust her chin in the air, palmed the bag she'd been handed, and turned from the driver, disdaining his escort as she entered Nerv proper. Only when she was out of sight did she break into a run.

She skidded to a stop and angrily stabbed the elevator button with her finger, then waited. The antiquated mechanical display at the top of the doors clicked off the elevator's current location as it rose, each tiny slapping sound grating on her more and more. When the doors finally slid apart, she angrily stomped inside, turned, and reached out to press the button, only to find the pale hand of Rei Ayanami already there, and pulled back. The girl was shaking visibly, and her odd eyes flashed, a paler shade than usual, although it may have just been the light. She stood at the front of the elevator, away from Asuka, while it ticked down towards the cages.

"You are distressed," Ayanami whispered.

Asuka pointedly said nothing as she folded her arms and turned to study the corner of the elevator.

"You feel fear. I can smell it on you."

Slowly, she turned, focusing her gaze on Asuka. She backed away, but Ayanami came closer. Her eyes definitely were a different color, she was sure, pale like bloodless flesh. Ayanami sniffed at the air and drew closer.

"There is something different."

"What?" Asuka muttered.

"There is something in your blood. You are not like the others. You smell like Shinji."

She took a step closer.

Asuka raised her right fist. A nimbus of flame flickered into being around her fingers, danced across her flesh as she opened and closed them, raising waves of heat from her skin. Her eyes narrowed, and an almost feral grin crept across her face.

"Try me."

Ayanami quailed, blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, her irises were a normal color. Asuka put her hand at her side and the flames winked out. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Ayanami turned around and faced the front of the elevator until the doors slid open, letting the cool, acrid-tasting air of the cages flow in. Asuka followed her out, keeping a few paces behind. She kept her eye on Ayanami as she shrugged out of her damp uniform in the locker room, pulled her plugsuit up, flipped her hair out of it, and hit the compression switch. Ayanami was lurking near the door in her plugsuit.

"I did not mean to frighten you."

"You didn't _frighten _me," Asuka snapped. "Let's go."

As she emerged, Shinji also exited the boy's locker room adjacent, and froze, his jaw falling open. His eyes locked on her, and she scowled at him. He blushed, looked at the floor, and hunched his shoulders high. His hands searched along his thighs but found no pockets to hide in, so he clenched one fist behind his back, raised the other to his mouth, and coughed.

"Does he always do that?" Asuka wondered.

"Yes," said Rei, continuing on past her.

Shinji looked surprised, and then darted off. She found herself wondering why seeing her in the plugsuit elicited such a reaction from him. The garment did not seem particularly interesting to her. Perhaps he enjoyed the color red. As she watched him walk away, she found her own gaze gravitating to his posterior and quirked an eyebrow, wondering what it was that prompted her to stare. She shook her head and headed past a row of orange-suited technicians, towards the Evangelion. It was a short trot up to the steps and a long step into the edge of the entry plug. She sat on the edge and slid into the already pooling LCL, thick and cold as it waited for the minute electric current that it would make it more tolerable. She glanced down the side of the plug.

Something caught her eye. At the base of the plug, where the armored segments had pulled apart like the segmented mouthparts of an insect, there was an inscription in a faded yellow triangle. If she hadn't happened to glance down, she never would have seen it, and indeed, hadn't noticed it before. When the armor was closed, it would have been invisible. It said, simply, _Dies ist nicht ein Schritt!_

Something about that bothered her, deeply, but now was not the time. She plunged into the harsh smelling liquid, wincing as it soaked into her hair, icy cold. It was already starting to electrolyze and thus warm, and she felt a bit more comfortable as she slid into the seat, pushed her feet into the stirrups, and pulled the control yoke down over her belly. It locked into place with a click and she leaned back to feel the sensation of synchronization, the sliding against the back of her head that preceded the feeling of merging with the machine. She closed her eyes as the world around her flashed in a thousand colors, and when she opened them, she saw the world as through the Evangelion's own eyes, projected on the inside of the plug.

* * *

><p>As he slipped into his plugsuit, Shinji shook a little, and after he hit the compression switch, he had to lean against the lockers with one hand. Sometimes, he wondered why they had so many, since he was the only male pilot and it didn't seem he would be joined by anyone else anytime soon. He took a deep breath, feeling the squeeze of the material against his stomach, and shivered from the cold. He hated being seen in this thing. He felt so skinny and unheroic. The way it squeezed itself to him, he felt even slighter than he was. He could see his rib bones poking out, and the angular shape of his narrow shoulders. He wasn't built for skin tight latex, that was for sure.<p>

When he walked out into the hallway, he almost fainted. Asuka and Rei were in their suits too, just emerging as he did. He desperately wished the locker rooms weren't placed so close together. He'd seen Rei in her suit a dozen times, and it didn't bother him as much anymore. In any case, she was his cousin, and it was wrong to think those sorts of things about her. Asuka, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. To say she filled out her suit was an understatement. She was soft and curvy yet well-muscled at the same time, and when she breathed, her abdominal muscles strained against the material. She stood with a sort of casual indifference to the skintight crimson suit that left very little to the imagination, her hips cocked to one side.

Shinji tried his best not to stare, but his mouth dropped open and he instantly forget every breathing and calming exercise Strange had been teaching him. He fidgeted for something to do with his hands and ended up coughing lamely. He rushed past them both, tearing his eyes from Asuka, head down, shoulders hunched, hating himself for the way he folded up and ran away. He ran past the orange suited technicians attending Unit One, and they all lifted their heads and stared at him. He trotted up the steps and almost jumped into the Eva, yelping as the cold LCL engulfed him and chilled him right through the suit.

It felt oddly comforting to be here. Normally, he disliked enclosed spaces, but here there was an odd sense of comfort. He hated taking the first gulping breath of LCL, and the foul taste of it in his mouth, yet somehow all of it was more than sum of its parts. It felt inviting, like it was drawing him in, and a sense of calm fell over him, but he knew it was the calm before the storm. He had the intense feeling, that rush of tension before the adrenaline came, the kind that only came from knowing he might be dead in a few minutes. As the synchronization startup began, he leaned back and closed his eyes.

_Doctor Strange?_

_Yes, Shinji. I am here. What troubles you?_

_I have to fight again. I hate it. _

_ I know, Shinji. You and you alone must decide for yourself the truth of your actions. You must also be prepared to accept the consequences. _

_ I know. I'm still thinking about quitting. You said nonviolence…_

_ I said nonviolence is not without its consequences. It is a choice, not a way to run away, Shinji. If you choose that path today, you will be condemning someone else to serve in your stead. Sometimes, our path is laid out for us. _

_ Oh. There's something else. _

_ Yes? _

_ My sort of girlfriend sort of dumped me. _

_ Shinji Ikari, I have walked with gods. I have traveled to places so vast and incomprehensible that they would shatter your mind, were you to gaze upon them unprepared. I have addressed the physical personification of the universe itself. I do not, however, presume to understand women. _

_ You're a lot of help. _

He couldn't help it. He laughed out loud.

_I know. Be careful, Shinji. This one may test you._

He opened his eyes as the synchronization came upon him, spreading into his body. He concentrated as he'd been told, focusing on ordering his breathing, slowing his heartbeat, bringing his mental focus into the now. The jitters and shaking in his fingers faded as he felt his purpose, forced himself to live in the present moment to the exclusion of all else.

"Shinji?" said Doctor Akagi. "Are you doing something different? Your synch ratio just gained three points."

"Not that I know of," he lied, his voice even and flat.

"Well, keep it up."

Misato appeared in his field of view, within a glowing square. Somehow, the Eva projected the image inside his mind itself, through the connectors on his head, but it appeared to be on a heads up display before him. Asuka and Rei flanked her. Asuka looked determined, but her eyes were wild, unfocused and darting about. Rei's irises had gone a soft pink, and she closed her eyes, aware that she was being seen, no doubt.

"Pilots," said Misato. "This will be a combined arms operation. The angel is too big to attempt to damage it with palette rifles or hand to hand. There will be three positions in this operation. Rei will be the sniper. Rei, you will be deployed six kilometers from the angel's best known position, with the experimental positron rifle. You will be connecting it to a second umbilical so we can dump all available power into it and charge up the shot as much as we can. Asuka, you will be close in. Your role in the operation is to neutralize the AT Field and empty as much small arms fire into a single spot as you can. Shinji, as you have the second best synch ratio, you're going to pick up a rocket launcher. Asuka and Rei will alternate fire until the core is exposed, at which point you will fire the rocket into it. Do you understand?"

"Roger," said Rei.

Asuka nodded. Shinji did the same, taking a slow breath. Asuka's eyes focused on him, and her expression became opaque to him. She seemed confused. He was about to ask her if she was okay when Misato went on.

"We have to stop this thing before it reaches the city. Its mass will allow it to begin tunneling through the armor plating over the Geofront if it closes. I want this mission high and tight, people. I want you to finish your school day to day."

Shinji instinctively groaned. Asuka looked away. Shinji blinked. She had been missing from school. Where had she been?

Rei simply looked back.

"Proceed to your designated launch rails. Good hunting."

* * *

><p>It was a hard thing, to stand the watch and bark orders to children who fought in her stead. When she was no longer on camera, Misato allowed herself to slump a tiny bit, but only for a second. Every pair of eyes on the bridge was on her. She walked up behind Makoto Hyuga, just as Maya Ibuki slid into her position next to her, Ritsuko following behind, a lit cigarette in her mouth. Misato tromped down the urge to tell her to put it out and stand her post. Ritsuko wasn't military, the lack of discipline wasn't her fault, as annoying as it was.<p>

Every aspect of it was agonizing. She longed to do this herself, to stand on the line and send these children off to be children where they belonged. Her own world had gone to hell when she was younger than they were now, but that didn't mean she wished the same on them. Even Asuka, as abrasive as she could be, had a good heart; she just never had anyone to teach her what good _was. _She watched the shaking camera views as the Evangelions stomped to their posts and pressed up against the rails that locked into their shoulder pylons, and stared into their grim, determined faces. Unit-00 hugged the rifle to itself, and the others would pick up their arms when they arrived on the surface.

"Launch," said Misato.

She clutched herself involuntarily as she waited. The pneumatic launch system was so powerful it sent a shockwave rippling through the floor, made the whole deck sway as the three Evas ascended simultaneously. It would take slightly longer for Rei to emerge, as Unit Zero's designated tube was more tortuous than the others. It was mid-day and when the Evas made the surface, they caught flares of sunlight on the angles of their armor. The angel, now in sight of the city's cameras, moved smoothly on the horizon, a breaching white wave in slow motion. It raised its massive jaws and snapped them, and Misato found herself watching the pilots' faces. Shinji's eyes widened and he immediately forced his expression flat, while Asuka pitched forward and bit her lip. Rei remained as neutral as ever.

They broke into motion. Shinji stomped to the armament building and shouldered the ponderous rocket launcher, so huge it nearly bowled Unit One over and Shinji grimace as he forced it to balance. Asuka took up a pair of palette rifles and without further direction, sprinted towards the angel. Its massive form moved gradually, in slow, up-and-down motions, each step shaking the cameras and raising a nimbus of dust around it. It was causing millions in damage just by existing. Misato paled.

"Pilots," Misato said quietly, "If that thing steps on a shelter…"

All three of them nodded.

"I am in position," said Rei.

She carried the rifle up into the hills and had put the Evangelion into a crouched position, resting the long barrel across the landscape for a rest. With the massive cooling apparatus at the end, it bore a resemblance to the main gun on some antiquated tank. It was a marvel of engineering that such a thing could exist at that size. It fired a bolt of supercharged particles that would burn a hole in whatever they struck and then explode as the antimatter core made contact with normal matter.

"Asuka, pick a spot on the flank. Concentrate your fire, try to do as much damage to a single area as you can."

Asuka said nothing, but raised both rifles, crouched, and fired. The shells struck in an area about the size of the Eva's torso, a small area on the back of the lumbering beast. It ignored her as she turned with it, emptying the magazines into the same target. She dropped one rifle, pulled a spare magazine from the armament building, and concentrated on hitting the same spot with more focus and technique, the explosions concentrated in a narrower area. The angel ignored her, continuing on. When it reached the first of the armored skyscrapers it swept its huge head, itself the size of a mighty warship, and simply battered it out of the way.

"I'm not doing enough damage," said Asuka.

"Fall back. Rei, you're up. Shinji, get ready. It may regenerate."

Carefully, Rei took aim, activating the compensation systems that would take into account the Coriolis effect, the Earth's gravitational pull, the curvature of the Earth, and other factors. It took her only a moment to line up the reticle, and her teeth bared in concentration as she lined up the final shot, breathed out, and pulled the trigger, her face suddenly slackening. The bolt left a purple trail of discoloration through the air as it surged into the pockmark on the angel's flank, and there was the barest instant of sizzling, the inside of the bloodless wound smouldering white hot before it exploded. The thing swept its long jaws from side to side and screamed, its roar so loud they didn't near speakers to hear it.

Suddenly seeing the Evas as a threat, it turned its flank and went for Asuka.

"Shinji, the launcher, _fire!"_

Shinji yanked the trigger but in his panic he pulled the shot, his eyes growing wide with horror as the smokey trail of the projectile sailed over the angel and impacted in the hills beyond the city, throwing up a bursting clump of earth followed by a mound of dirt, like an upturned bowl, that burst like a bubble. He dropped the launcher forward and fumbled for another round, pulling it from the rack of the armament building to load it.

"Hold your fire," Asuka snapped, "It's closing with me. I'm going to hand to hand."

"Asuka," Misato shouted, "that's insane, back off and-"

The angel roared and charged her, and when it stamped its feet, the whole city shook, and some of the cameras went to static. Its movements were ponderously slow and yet terrifyingly fast. Asuka ran around its side, drawing it into a sharp turn, closing and firing into the opening in its flank with her rifle as she did, until it was empty. She broke from the dance and headed for an armament building.

"Open up the arms caches," Misato commanded, "all of them."

"I can't see the core," Asuka shouted. "We're not doing enough damage. It's too big."

"It's in the mouth!" Shinji cried. "I see it!"

"Get me a visual," Misato snapped.

Hyuga leaned into his station and worked his keyboard furiously, aiming and focusing the cameras. Everything was shaking as the angel tried with ponderous slowness to turn to get Asuka within range of its vast jaws. A single bite from them might kill her. It could have easily swallowed the Eva whole, taken the entire machine down its massive gullet in one swallow. As it snapped its jaws at the air, Misato glimpsed the shining red core, buried deep within the creature's throat, barely visible.

"He's right. It's in the mouth. We need to get a clear shot at it."

"I will attempt to destroy the jaws," said Rei.

"Negative, check your fire. They move too fast."

Asuka almost danced to the armaments building and grabbed the progressive spears from the rack, taking one up in her right hand, point down as if to throw, the others gathered up like a bundle of sticks in her left hand. She turned and ran past the angel's eyeless head, and it followed at her, snapping its jaws at empty air. When it lowered its head as if to charge and bellowed, jaws open wide, Asuka dropped into a stance, reared back, and hurled the first spear. The angel swept is jaws and deflected it, snapping the haft into a dozen pieces that skittered and skimmed through the city streets, smashing up everything in their path.

"This isn't going to work," Asuka said quietly. "I need to get closer."

She moved in, dancing just out of ranch of the angel's jaws, light on the balls of the Eva's feet. It snapped at her and swung its long, balancing tail, and she deftly avoided both, dancing just out of their reach. She snatched one spear from her off hand and readied it for a throw. Shinji closed with them, rocket launcher in hand.

"Asuka, get back!"

"No, damn it! It's mine!"

Misato tensed. Not now. Not _now_.

"I can-" Rei started.

"Quiet," Asuka snapped, "I can do this!"

The distraction was enough. Misato could swear she saw the angel's jaws deform slightly, the corners of its mouth pull back into a grin. It raised one clawed foot the size of a building and slammed it down on Asuka's umbilical. She yelped and tugged at it, dropping the spears, and the angel turned.

"Drop her umbilical!" Misato shouted.

It was too late. Closed, the jaws hit her, and bowled Unit Two over onto its rear end. It opened its jaws, now slavering with drool, and closed them around her legs. Bladed teeth the size of cars rammed through her thighs, and Misato heard the crunch as the Eva's armor and synthetic bones and joints crumbled under the pressure. Unit Two flailed.

Asuka's shriek cut her through to the bone. Her wail of pain was high pitched, the kind that sounds like a gurgle as it burns the walls of the throat, a wordless cry of horror. On screen, as the sound abated, she writhed in the seat, clutching at her legs, her stomach pushed in as she expelled every bit of the link control iquid from her lungs, tried to scream even without air.

Misato's voices was shaking. "Asuka, stay calm. It's not your real legs, it-"

She sucked in enough of a breath. "It _hurts,_ oh _God,"_

All of the screens went black at once. The entire bridge went black at once. A moment later, the thrum of the emergency generators kicked in and there was a whump as the primary systems came back on, but they were deaf and blind, able to feel the battle as it rumbled through the earth but not see or hear it.

"What the _hell?_" Misato demanded. "I want visuals, now!"

"I don't know," Hyuga said, "Something happened, Unit One blew out the breakers and shut everything off."

"There was a power surge," said Aoba.

"I don't understand these readings," said Maya.

Ritsuko leaned over her. "It fried the umbilical. I don't understand what could cause that."

"Get me my monitors back!"

* * *

><p>Shinji heard the pained scream and lost control. He dropped the rocket launcher and his hands fell to his sides, Unit One mimicking the motion. His chest pumped in and out, too hard, too fast, and he felt his head swim. It was going to kill her. It was going to kill her and it was his fault, because he missed. She was screaming and begging for help and the angel picked her up and was shaking Unit Two, and the view from inside the plug went to static, leaving only Rei on the screen.<p>

_Strange,_ he pleaded, _help me, what do I do?_

_There is little help I can give you, Shinji. You are not ready for-_

_ I don't want her to die. _

He ran forward to the angel and put his arms against its jaws, trying to stop it. It shoved him along, Unit One's feet digging furrows in the streets below it, and he almost fell when his foot went into the basement of some shop, the heel catching in the ground. The force wrenched his leg and he ground his teeth in pain. Asuka was still screaming, pleading with someone to help her.

_Do as I say. You must gather your will, Shinji. The words are not enough, you must have intent. Focus on your desire to open the creature's jaws and open your mind. I will help you._

He closed his eyes, breathed in and out, and focused on opening the jaws, pressing against them with his palms, not caring that the sharp teeth stung him. Asuka had begun to hyperventilate, he had to get her out, but he couldn't do that without clearing his mind, without focus. He felt a void forming in the core of his being, a link to somewhere else and swore he felt hands on his shoulders.

_Speak with me, Shinji, as we draw on ancient ways of power. __**BY THE-**_

"_**CRIMSON BANDS OF CYTTORAK**_**!**" Shinji finished aloud.

Something happened. Power surged, flowed through him, and he felt his hair stand on end. He opened himself to the feeling, let it rage through him, and when he raised his hands, Unit One did the same, releasing the angel. Everything went dark as the Geofront feeds ceased, leaving him alone with Rei and static and Asuka's pained wails. A nimbus of pale light formed in bands around the angel's jaws and he concentrated, accepting the feeling, and the bizarre sensation that he was not alone grew stronger. The light deepened and grew brighter and suddenly there were bands of burnished crimson metal wrapped round and round the angel's upper and lower jaws. Shinji pitched forward and grunted, gritting his teeth. Once they were there, moving them was as natural as moving a beer can or a bit of chain link fence. He forced the angel's jaw open an inch at a time, sending broken teeth scattering the ground below. The angel struggled and fumed, and Asuka's cries faded to a low moan.

Gingerly, he put both of the Eva's arms under the broken form of Unit Two, supporting its torso. Asuka let out a gasp of pain as he lifted the ruined legs free from the jagged teeth and pulled her loose, cradling Unit Two as a newlywed carries a bridge. He saw the core. He didn't need magic for this. He needed metal.

They gave him plenty.

He looked at the armored skyscrapers around him. They ceased to be. He felt the metal, felt the current of energy flowing through them, felt the magic of the Earth. When he whispered to them they answered him, whipping loose of their moorings, and the buildings fell into cascading flows of dust, sliding to the ground like puppets with their strings severed. The steel girders and rivets and doorknobs and every other thing, the guts of the building, came together. The angel roared and struggled and the Crimson Bands began to crack as he focused his will elsewhere. He backed away and lowered Unit Two to the ground and took hold of the steel in Unit One's hands. It warped and folded under his touch, forming a great hexagonal block. He rammed it sideways into the angel's mouth, jumped, and put the full weight of the Eva down on top of it, forcing its head to the deck.

"Rei!" Shinji shouted, "_Rei!" _

"Roger," Rei said softly.

She lined up the shot. She took it.

He jumped clear.

The Bands disintegrated, and the steel was unmade, pouring from the angel's mouth in a white hot torrent of molten metal as the particle beam passed through it and into the angel's mouth. The thing clamped its ruined jaws shut as if to swallow it, made an almost comical burbling sound, and then with a great whump the sides of its heads blew out, leaving super-dense bones visible within. The core, cracked, and broken, slumped free in a series of strings of ropey white flesh, wet with ichor. The thing started to move, started to rise. Shinji walked over to it, yanked the core free with a sickening crunch, and brought it down across his knees, ending it.

Asuka gurgled.

Shinji turned, threw Unit One to the deck in a half-pushup, and yanked the eject lever. The entry plug went dark and lurched and he waited in weightlessness until it slammed to the ground and spun. He reached out with his will and slowed it, forcing it to stop, trying to hold his guts down. His vision was spinning and he saw lights in his vision when it stopped, and he didn't bother with the door. The side of the plug simply unfolded for him, spread apart like a broken accordion. He stumbled on the ground, almost slipping in the rush of warm LCL flowing out over the pavement, and broke into an unsteady run.

Unit Two lay on her side. Shinji skidded to a stop, raised his arms, and felt his head swim as he pulled. The neck armor peeled back, layer by layer, until he saw the entry plug, still snug in its rails. Asuka hadn't ejected. She hadn't ejected. His stomach clenched. He pulled. The plug made a series of groaning clanking sounds as he pulled it free, brought it slowly to the earth. Once it was at rest, he no longer cared for finesse, and with an expansive wave of his hand ripped the hatch free and sent it bouncing down the street.

He limped to the plug, ignoring a twinge in his leg. He put his hands on the edge of the hatch and vaulted over, landing badly against the seat. Asuka lay slumped, but she was breathing. Something had happened to the control yoke and it was stuck, but there was enough metal in it. He touched his two fingers to it and when he lifted his arm the yoke ripped free, moving with it, and he tossed it into the bottom of the plug in a pile of parts and mechanical guts. He ran his hands down her legs; the sympathetic injuries were just bruises, her legs weren't broken. She moaned softly and she cradled her head against his shoulder and touched her cheek.

She opened her eyes, but they were lidded. "Hurts," she whispered.

"You're going to be okay."

She blinked and nodded, and closed her eyes. Her breathing became steadier, and a strange thought overtook him. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or the energy surging through him, or perhaps it was the simple fact that she was asleep, the haughty sneer absent her sharp features, but she was stunningly beautiful. The way her wet hair played over her face, and the pale glow of the lights in the plug lit her pale skin made her seem distant, ethereal, too perfect to be real. He brushed the hair away from her eyes and tensed. As he ran his fingers over her skin, he felt a tension, like something resisting him, but there was nothing there but her soaked hair. He felt a wave of nausea as he reached for the sensation, drawing it into himself.

_Stephen_, he sent, _I feel something. _

_ What is it, Shinji?_

_Magic, dark and terrible, like greasy meat. Someone has done something to her, touched her mind in some way. _

_ Pull back,_ Strange warned. _You are not ready. You have little regard for your own safety, it seems, but have some for hers._

_I will,_ he sent, drawing his hand back, _but I have too much regard for my safety. I'm a coward. _

_A coward would not do what you have done this day, Shinji Ikari. I will seek you in the Astral this night._

* * *

><p>Hikari sat up with her knees pulled to her chest and waited, watching the tiny streamers of dust fall earthward with every rippling boom. She had no idea what was outside the shelter, and was biting her lip in anticipation. It seemed like they had been in there forever, and she kept looking for an out, a way to slip away and don her costume, but the class rep was riding herd today, probably after Kodama complained. She was trapped, and it bothered her.<p>

Toji sat across from her. He looked glum, but differently somehow. There was a wistful look in his eye, as if he was looking through her rather than at her. He shifted his gaze to an empty spot n the concrete wall and leaned his head over to where Kensuke sat behind him, fiddling with his weird looking laptop. He'd put little toy legs on it for some reason, and they waved and snapped at the air, like the claws of a mechanical insect.

"Kensuke," said Toji, "why don't girls make any sense?"

"Why do fools fall in love?" said Kensuke.

Toji glanced at him, then blew his hair out of his eyes. "Oh shut up."

"I'm sitting right here," Hikari grumbled.

"So why don't girls make any sense?" said Toji.

Hikari sat up, defensively. "They do. Boys make no sense. My sister makes no sense. I make no sense."

"See," said Toji, smirking, "You're agreeing with me."

"No one makes any sense," said Kensuke, the flicker of his laptop reflecting on his glasses. "Only machines make sense."

Toji glanced at him. "Gah."

There was a final, rippling boom, and more dust came down from the rafters. A pall fell over the room as dozens of young faces swiveled up to the ceiling and waited. No further sounds came. A recorded voice piped through the room, echoing off the bare walls.

"The emergency is now over. The following districts are off limits…"

The voice trailed off, mechanically reciting a series of neighborhoods that weren't near the school, or the residential area, but on the other side of the city, towards the sea. Hikari stood up and groaned. The class rep looked at her through thick glasses disdainfully, brushed past her, and walked to the shelter entrance. Hikari sighed and offered a hand for Toji and Kensuke to stand up.

"Ow," said Kensuke. "Are you trying to break my hand?"

"Sorry," Hikari said, sheepishly.

When they wandered out of the shelter into the school basement, there was a sort of weight on the assembled students, as if they were bearing something out of it on their shoulders. Hikari heard whispers and mumbling, people talking about moving away, wishing they lived somewhere else. She trudged up the stairs from the school basement into the hall, and the school looked like it had been through an earthquake. Some of the lockers were popped open, and there were papers strewn about everywhere. The quiet murmuring of the students dropped off.

"Due to today's emergency," the secretary with the shrill voice said over the intercom, "school will be cancelled for the remainder of the day. Report at normal time tomorrow."

Hikari sighed, and glanced at the clock. School would have been over soon anyway, so it was no wonder that they called it. There was a heavy thump, and the ground beneath her feet sent shockwaves up her legs. The back of her neck buzzed, and the class rep calmly walked into the hallway from the front school.

"I don't mean to alarm anyone," she said quietly, "but there is a Tyrannosaur outside."

An animalistic bellow rolled through the halls, and a shadow passed across the narrow windows that lined the top of the walls, over the lockers. There was another thump and another, and the open locker doors swayed. A low, gurgling growl, like a fast stream mixed with tearing cloth, rumbled around her as the shadow passed from window to window. At the far end of the hall, the shadow passed over the double doors. A great crocodililan head loomed down in front of them, turned sideways. The creature's skull stretched from one side of the door to the other, and its mouth hung open, filled with long, sharp teeth the size of butcher knives. It pushed itself lower and sniffed at the air with nostrils big enough to hold Hikari's fists, and then with a snort, reared up.

"You gotta be kidding me," said Toji.

It snarled, took a bounding step, and rammed its head through the doors. Hikari's danger sense went berserk, tugging at the back of her neck. She turned around in all directions, but it was everywhere, even over her head. The Tyrannosaur's snout crashed through the double doors and moved its head just over the ground. It fixed its gaze on Hikari and the students around her and its beady eyes focused on them, full of hunger and lust, and its jaws opened and closed. Suddenly, it pulled back, sliding out of the opening, and began walking, each step reverberating through the building.

"The shelter!" Hikari shouted, "_Get everybody back in the shelter!"_

The class rep stood there dumbly for a moment. "Uh," she said, "Everyone go back downstairs, please."

All hell broke loose. Students were running every which way. Hikari heard a high pitched, gurgling scream, but it wasn't human. Something low, small, and fast ran in through the broken double doors, dancing over the broken glass on feet that ended in a huge, wickedly hooked claw. It shrieked again and jumped at her, spindly forearms and long legs poised to tear at her, and she jumped just in time, sailing over its head. Undeterred, it skidded to a spinning stop as it landed, its claws digging thin trails of curled linoleum from the floor. It called out again, and was answered by more cries from outside. Hikari kicked her shoes off in midair and ran down the lockers, over the heads of the screaming students, and jumped at the creature, which resembled some sort of bird-lizard. As she neared the ceiling she grabbed the tiles with both hands and put both heels into the thing's flank and felt a satisfying crunch of bone. It yelped in pain and went sliding across the floor.

As she dropped, she felt the buzz in the back of her neck and another one came at her, claws poised. Toji shoulder-checked it, pinning in to the lockers. It reared back, hissed, and clamped down his forearm with his jaws. Toji grunted and wrestled with it, trying to yank his hand free, succeeding only in shredding his uniform sleeve. He pulled it away from the locker, got it in a headlock, and slammed down on top of it. It gurgled in pain as it hit the ground, and Toji did something, somehow, that made everything around him jump a little, the papers flopping from the floor as if something huge had hit the tiles. The flooring around him cracked, and a spreading pool of dark blood opened out beneath him.

"Toji!" Hikari cried, rushing to his side.

"I'm fine," he said, standing up. He was soaked in blood, but it wasn't his. "We need to hold them off while everyone gets to the shelter."

Kensuke was dragging something out of the boy's locker room. Whatever it was, it was heavy and angular and strained at the nylon bag he had it in. He grunted as he pulled it out into the hall, knelt, and unzipped it. Whatever it was, it was made of metal, and looked like a bundle of articulated metal hoses or tubes. He flopped it out onto the floor and let the hose-things open up, rolling away from him. He began stripping off his shirt.

"What the hell is that?" said Toji.

"I told you I was working on stuff. I had this stashed in the back."

Kensuke tightened his belt, pulled his undershirt tight, and shrugged into the harness. It closed around his belly and clamped shut with a series of heavy straps. When it cinched tight around him, each of the arms lifted from the floor and curled around him. Each was tipped in a heavy metal claw of three-fingered prongs that snapped open and shut. He grinned as he watched them move, and brought them up to his sides.

"What do you think?"

"How the _hell _did you do that?" said Hikari.

"I'm not really sure," Kensuke shrugged, and the arms whirred and moved with the motion. "I-"

A turkey-lizard leapt at him, toes click-clicking across the floor. Kensuke yelped, turned, and deflected it with his mechanical arms. It bounced away from him, skidded across the floor, and then rolled to its feet and snarled with astonishing speed and quickness. Kensuke backed away, snapping his mechanical pincers at it. It jumped for him, claws held high.

Hikari flicked her wrist out, caught it in a web, and yanked it backwards. It let out an almost sorrowful yelp, until Toji jumped and landed on it with a flying elbow, and once again the ground shook under the impact. He rolled off of it, leaving its limp form lying on the ground. As he stood up, he shook a little, clutching at his head.

"I can't keep doing that," he muttered.

"Let's get to the… oh God…"

"What?"

"My family! How many of these things do you think there are?"

"What am I, a paleontologist?"

Kensuke snickered.

"Shut up, Kensuke!"

Hikari ignored them, turned, and ran. She danced lightly over the broken glass, putting her feet on the door frames. There was no time for her to slip into costume, especially since slipping was more like an arduous five-minute putting on. She was going to have to devise something she could wear under her uniform. She made it five steps outside before the back of her neck tugged at her and she she heard an earth shaking roar that almost bowled her off her feet. Standing with its feet planted apart, the tyrannosaur pitched forward, opened its jaws, and charged.

* * *

><p>The command center broke out in cheers. Only Comander Ikari and Fuyutsuki remained silent, watching impassively from above. Misato almost jumped for joy when she saw the camera feed of Shinji settling in next to an unconscious, but breathing, Asuka. The boy sighed a deep sigh of relief, whispered something to her, and brushed the hair out of her eyes with his fingers.<p>

"That's cute," said Maya.

Hyuga stood up, his headset pressed into his ears with one finger. He raised his other hand and waved incessantly, and Misato cut off her cheer, trailing off as she raised her hands and turned, gesturing for silence. Hyuga's eyes widened as he looked at her, and everyone in the room stared at him. He covered the microphone of his headset with one hand.

"Captain?"

"What?"

"You're not going to believe this…"

Misato crossed her arms. "What now?"

"About fifteen people just called the emergency lines from the shelters and said that _dinosaurs_ were trying to get in."

Misato blinked. "What?"

Essex stomped back onto the bridge. "I told you to take steps to secure my cargo, I-"

Misato rounded on him. "What the hell do you mean, your _cargo?_ Dinosaurs? _Dinosaurs?_ What the hell is going on?"

"I have a shipping manifest here," Essex said grimly. "These creatures must be recaptured immediately."

He thrust a clipboard at her, and she scanned it. Forty two specimens of _Velciraptor mongoliensis, _one adult male _Tyrannosaurus rex_, one juvenile female _Triceratops horridus_, one adult female _S. populator_, sabre-toothed cat, and dozens of tissue samples.

"This is a joke, right?" said Misato.

"I assure you, it is not."

She shoved the clipboard back at him. "Where in the hell did you get these things? What are they _for?_"

"That information is classified," Essex snapped, snatching the clipboard from her.

Misato shook her head and turned. "I'll worry about that later. Hyuga! Sound the evacuation alarm, I want the shelters buttoned up as soon as possible. Call the civilian authorities, tell them a shipment of dangerous animals got loose during the angel attack, they should arm themselves and stay together."

"Done," said Hyuga, turning.

"Aoba, Maya, get everybody. I want every Section 2 agent and all able bodied personnel at the armory as soon as possible. We're going hunting."

"My samples!" Essex snarled.

"Your samples are eating people," Misato snapped. "Commander?"

"Lethal force is authorized," said Ikari. He stood up. "Fuyutsuki, handle this."

"Where are you going?"

"To join the hunt," said Gendo.

Misato blinked. "Whatever."

She brushed past Essex, who was way too heavy for his size, she noted, and made her way out of the command center. She almost giggled. She felt like she was losing her mind. She was about to lead her subordinates in a bout of dinosaur hunting.

* * *

><p>Hikari jumped out of the way just in time. The lower jaws of the great beast slid past her, scuffing along the ground, and when it snapped them closed there was a whuff of wind that flowed over her, hot and stinking. It smelled like rotten meat and offal, but tenfold. It stomped past her, huge feet digging furrows in the earth, and cracked the sidewalk when its three-toed foot stepped onto it, nearly snapping a panel of concrete in half. It turned, its huge body describing a wide arc, balanced by its thick tail, and charged at her again. This time she crouched, waited, and jumped.<p>

As it went low, she went high, jumping over its head. She slapped her palm against its nose, rolled over its head as it snapped up to bite at her, and for dear life clung to its neck, digging her palms and fingers into its flesh. It roared, and the sound rumbled through its throat as she clamped her legs around it, desperately trying to hold on. She yelped as its tiny arm raked her leg with its claws, drawing a thin trickle of blood. She glanced at it, saw it was a scratch, and shifted her weight away from it. The tyrannosaur bellowed and began shaking its entire body furiously, swaying from side to side as it tried in vain to shake her loose.

When she moved, it turned to where it felt her presence and charged, and she held on, clawing at its back. It ran down the hill away from the school and slowed as it stomped out onto the street, stopping to bellow and snap at her again. She rolled up onto the back of its neck and dug in her heels.

"Hya! Hya!"

It didn't so much respond to her as try to curl around itself. She saw its big eye straining to turn and look at her at the extreme of its orbit, showing the white. She tapped the ridge of bone over its eye and this time it did turn, snapping furiously in her direction, and continued stomping on, into the city. She tried batting at it and slapping its flanks in an attempt to turn it, but it only tried in vain to scratch at her with its little arms, desperately trying to pull her off its neck while, at the same time, ignoring her and moving on, eyes widened, nostrils sniffing and searching.

"Hey!" Hikari shouted, "Big jerk tyrannosaur! I'm up here!"

The beast slowed, ponderous steps becoming more exaggerated and bird like, and looked up at her, tilting its head for a better view. It snorted, pressed its jaws closed, and began turning again, trying to shake her away from its body. She heard a sound, and the rex turned, focusing its gaze further ahead. A bus rumbled around the corner, probably headed for a shelter. In her focus on the ten ton animal trying eat her, it had slipped Hikari's notice that the evacuation alarm was sounding. As the bus slowed to make the turn, dozens of small faces pressed themselves up against the glass of the windows. Children. It was a busload of children.

Tyrannosaurus rex roared, lowered his heavy head, and charged.

* * *

><p>Toji broke into a run, ignoring the class rep's pleas to join them in the shelter. Kensuke, on the other hand, took her up on it, hastily dumping his contraption in a garbage can before running through the door, still shirtless. The class rep gave him an odd look, glanced once after Toji, and then pulled the door shut, visibly trembling. He took a glance back, and then wiped off the lizard bird monster yuck that was all over him and flicked a handful of it on the ground. He looked at the ruined bodies of the things and shuddered a little. He hadn't meant to kill them, but they would have torn Hikari and Kensuke apart. He had no choice.<p>

Another one jumped when he ran out of the school. He leaned into it and pushed off, grunting as its claws slid harmlessly across his skin. It barked at him and snapped its jaws, and came at him again. It clamped down on his head, his face with its mouth. He yelped and spun in a circle, trying to pull it off, and tried to do his thing, but pushing into the ground so hard before took a lot out of him, like flexing every muscle in his body all at the same time. He grabbed the creature by its neck and managed to pry it back, shocked by its strength. For all it couldn't put a scratch on him, it was shredding his clothes, and it was freakish how strong it was for its size.

He heard a hiss, low and soft. He turned, still holding the screaming chicken monster that was trying to eat him, just in time to see Rei, dressed in a skin-tight white suit that seemed downright indecent. She ran across the front lawn of the school at astonishing speed, jumped, and planted both feet in the creature's side. It raked at her and drew a long gash down her cheek, and Toji ran after her.

"What the hell are you-"

She picked the chicken-lizard up, grabbed its neck and tail, and with one hard shake snapped its back with a sickening crunch. She drew it close to herself, like she was cradling it, and opened her mouth too-wide and clamped down on its throat. He saw her own neck pulsing as she swallowed great mouthfuls of blood, and his stomach rolled. He nearly wretched. The thing still struggled, until it went limp, and she threw it down. When she turned, her irises we so dark they weren't even her normal red anymore, but almost brown, they were such a dark crimson. She stalked over to him, running her tongue around her mouth to lap up the rest of the blood, hips swaying.

"So, uh," said Toji, "Umm, how was your day?"

Rei's lips pulled back in a tight grin, her irises turned pale, and she jumped at him. He caught her and rolled, letting her come up on top. She pinned him to the ground, but he could have easily picked her up. He remembered why she was jumping him when he felt the slick, sticky blood all over his chest and soaking into his torn clothes. Rather than bite him, she pressed against him. She ran her tongue over him, and everywhere she touched him, that strange, warm feeling crept through his skin, and he relaxed instantly.

"Uh, Rei?"

She continued sucking up the blood, until his chest was mostly clean.

"What?" she snapped, looking up at him.

"Your suit is all bloody."

She looked down. "I see."

"Uh," he said.

Her eyes snapped up to him. "What?"

"So, umm, would you like to go out with me?"

She stood up. "I told you, I cannot."

"I think it's pretty obvious that you can't hurt me."

"That is not the point," said Rei. "There are others who will."

"Well, umm," Toji stuttered.

Oh, great. Really smooth, Toji.

"Listen," he said, grabbing her arm, "this is a weird time to do this right now considering the whole blood and lizards thing, but I'm not kidding, Rei. I kinda, umm, like you."

"Like me?" Rei blinked, yanking her arm loose from his grip.

"Well, I mean, a lot of guys would like a pretty girl sitting on their lap all night, even if the girl _was_ trying to eat them, and-"

"I was not trying to eat you. I was trying to drink your blood. There is a difference."

He couldn't help it. The whole situation was so absurd. He laughed, just a quiet little snicker.

She slapped him. "It's not funny!" she said as her hand crossed his cheek.

He could tell it hurt more than it hurt him. She turned to go.

"Wait," he pleaded, "I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry!"

She stopped, and sighed, and something about the sheer defeat in her slack features made him sag along with her. He stood there in his tattered shirt covered in lizard blood, staring at the pretty girl that bit people and sucked their blood, and somehow it wasn't funny anymore.

"I exist only to harm others," Rei said quietly. "I do not wish to exist at all."

"That's not right," Toji protested. "Who said that?"

She turned from. "It doesn't matter."

"How do you know it's true?"

"I know my purpose. I always have. I am not meant to fit in. I do not understand why I must come here and spend time with these people at all. I only risk hurting them."

Toji ran his hands over his face, through his hair, and winced. He had lizard goop all over his fingers. "How about this. You want to make someone be happy?"

"I… I could."

"I'm standing here covered in lizard guts, my shirt has been torn off, and I _liked _that shirt. You know what would make me really happy? If I say 'will you go out with me' and you say, yes!"

She stared at him blankly.

"Well?"

"You did not ask me yet."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Rei, will you go out with me?"

"Yes?" she said weakly. "I do not understand what 'going out' means. We are already outside, and-"

He heard a low growl, and turned. A cat, a monstrous cat nearly the length of a small car, was slinking around the side of the school, eyeing them with green eyes that caught the fading afternoon light and glinted green. Its front teeth were elongated, jutting below its jaw even as its mouth was closed. Rei tensed and Toji did, too. She fixed her eyes on it and it on her, and then it leapt at him.

Figures.

* * *

><p>Asuka groaned as she awoke. She felt oddly comfortable. Her cheek was pressed into latex which was itself wrapped tight around something soft and pliable. As she came around, she realized her head was resting on Shinji's shoulder, and she tensed. He was asleep, having passed outside beside her with his head leaning on hers. He'd put his arm behind her neck so that she was resting on him, and the cause behind his action puzzled her. Was he attempting to warm her? He should know by now that hypothermia was not a concern. In any case, the LCL was room temperature. Her seat was padded, and as, such she saw no intent to make her more comfortable. As she moved to look up at his face, her hair brushed under his nose and he instinctively leaned into it, still asleep, and took a small breath through his nose, and smiled. All of these actions confused her.<p>

Then, he woke up.

"Oh!" he shouted, "Crap!"

"What?" said Asuka.

"Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't, I mean, you were, I-"

She sat up, and furrowed her brows. "Why are you behaving that way?"

He blinked. "You're not angry with me?"

"Why would I be?"

"Well," he said, "I was, and you were, um, and I-"

She sat up when she heard an explosion outside, and dust rained down into the plug through the open hatch. She noticed that the hinges had been torn apart, and tilted her head. She reached out and touched the twisted metal, worked smooth by the forces that worked on it, like stretched taffy.

"Did you do that?"

"Yeah," he blushed.

Something was moving outside. Slowly, she stood up, gingerly testing her legs. She seemed none the worse for wear. She was able to stand in the knee-deep LCL and pull herself onto the edge of the hatch. Shinji crawled out beside her, although more awkwardly, and nearly snagged his suit on the metal. It was a short drop to the ground below. She could touch the street with her toes before sliding off the edge of the plug. Shinji dropped down beside her. He nearly fell, wind milling his arms for balance, and she grabbed his shoulder to steady him, grunting in annoyance.

"How is that you are such a mighty warrior, yet so readily play the fool?" she said, her voice heated.

She looked around. "How did you get the plug out?"

"I did my thing. With the metal."

She blinked. "You what?"

"I was scared," he shrugged. "I thought you were really hurt."

"Why would that matter to you? My failures are my concern."

"We're a team," Shinji protested, "we're supposed to work together."

"That is unnatural," Asuka shrugged. "The fittest should survive. That is von Doom's way."

She felt a pang in her stomach. Was Doom the fittest? Did it give him a right to allow others to starve? She looked at Shinji, who continued staring at her blankly.

"You don't sound sure about that," Shinji observed.

"I'm not," she whispered. "I'm not sure about anything."

He was looking at her. She straightened, meaning to assess his intent, and he withered. Suddenly, he stood up again, but he was not looking at her, but past her, and she glanced over her shoulder as he shouted, "Look out!"

From its size, speed, and deadly toe-claws, she recognized the creature as a velociraptor immediately. She tilted her head, wondering how such a creature could come to be in a city in Japan. She had often toyed with mechanical versions of the creatures in von Doom's training rooms. When it leapt at her, screeching, Shinji cringed. She raised her hand and a gout of flame erupted from her palm, engulfing the creature in white hot gas. It blew backwards, its flesh charred to white powder, its bones charred and cracked. Stinking of burning meat, its remains fell in a heap several feet away from her. She looked at her hand. She'd burned away the glove and part of the forearm of her plugsuit, which was a minor annoyance.

"Wow," said Shinji.

"I have some tricks of my own," said Asuka. "We should return to headquarters. These creatures are pack hunters, there will be more."

"Uh," said Shinji.

"You have to know these things if you're going to rule western civilization one day," Asuka smirked. Too bad it sounded a little hollow, even to her.

* * *

><p>Time slowed.<p>

Okay, Hikari, time to think.

She was currently astride ten tons of angry, hungry teeth bearing down on a bus load of innocent children, all of whom were pointing and screaming. She had to stop it or divert it somehow or do _something_, and she had to do it now. She stood on the big animal's spine, balancing herself on the balls of her feet, and looked around. She had a narrow street and some buildings and maybe ten seconds to work with, if that. The beast seemed to build up more speed with every bounding stride. She ran up the back of the animal's neck until she was perched at the base of its massive skull. It ignored her, now, busy bearing down on new prey. She thrust her arms out and launched thin, silvery strands of web so that they crossed over each other maybe fifty meters ahead of the tyrannosaur, fired strand after strand, as much as she could manage, until her wrists stung. Then, she jumped back, pressed herself flat, and pulled.

As it charged into them, the crossed webs formed a hardness across the tyrannosaur's massive chest. It pulled her tight against it, and she had to grit her teeth and pull to keep them from ripping right out of her hands. The webs stretched as the beast slowed, tugging against them. Huffing and snarling its fury, it turned, twisting them around itself, constraining its neck, and began moving in the opposite direction. Hikari let the other webs go as they snapped into a noose around it, and began firing off more, criss-crossing the street in front of the tyrannosaur with thin, silvery strands of web.

As it crashed into them, some of them snapped, but others held, twining themselves around it with thrums like plucked strings on a guitar. It turned on itself, trying to snap at her, bound in the webs, and when it closed its teeth on empty air as she dodged, she fired a web into the side of its meaty snout and jumped up and over it. As it swung, the momentum carried her around and she kicked out her feet until she had its snout bound shut, wrapped in a layer of webbing. For all the force with which it could bite down, the muscles that it used to open its jaws were weak, and it stomped and swung its head futilely in the constricting web. Hikari dropped to her feet, panting, just out of its reach and sighed with relief as the bus picked up speed.

The tyrannosaur's struggling slowed, and it looked at her, and chuffed a great stinking carnivore breath out through its nostrils. Hikari gagged. Its breath could make a Billy goat puke, wet and heavy with rotten meat and something that smelled too much like body odor and the stink of a dirty toilet. She looked up at it considered her, no longer straining against its bonds.

"Great," she muttered, "Now what the hell do I do with you?"

It snorted and stamped its foot again, and in answer to her question, she heard sirens. A fire engine rounded the corner, siren blaring, followed by two dozen Nerv staff cars. Hikari ran and jumped up the side of the nearest building, using hands and feet to crawl up the side as fast as she could go. Without turning back, she sprinted across the rooftop, tossed out a line, and swung away.

* * *

><p>As the great cat darted at Toji, so big its steps made thump-thumping sounds in the wet, grassy earth, Rei crouched, threw out her arms, and hissed. Toji planted himself, concentrated, and felt the ground crumpling under his feet as the soles of his sneakers sunk into it. The cat reared up and jumped, jaw wide, paws spread for the kill, and Toji crossed his arms in front of his face. He concentrated and leaned into it, and the cat slammed into him, hard, turning his body to the side, but he kept his ground, rooted to the spot. It rolled over to its side with a yowl that was disturbingly like that of a big tabby cat, snarled, and let out a decidedly un-cat-like roar. It turned to Rei, who threw her arms out and hissed, fingers curled into claws.<p>

Toji ran and body checked it, but he wasn't strong enough to push a half ton animal along the ground. It reared back and hit him with a backhanded swipe of its paw, pushing him back with bone crushing force. He yelped and it knocked the wind out of him, but he grabbed on, rolled onto its back, and concentrated. The downward force squashed it to the ground and it yelped again, struggling.

"Stay back!" Toji shouted, even as Rei stalked closer.

She slowed, but there was still a feral look in her eye, glinting fangs poking out through her lips. "I can kill it."

"It's an animal," said Toji. "It's not its fault."

"It doesn't think the same of you."

The cat snarled and pushed up at him, but was unable to move the great pressure on its back.

"I didn't want to kill those other ones, either," Toji shouted, "they were trying to bite my face off!"

The cat's breathing slowed, and its jaws went shut with a slapping click. It stared at Rei as she drew nearer, meeting its gaze with her own. She cocked her head to the side as she stared at it. She came closer by a few paces, just out of range of its slashing claws, and paused, dropping into a squat. Rei and the cat stared into each other's eyes, and what happened next shocked Toji.

She almost casually reached out and rested the palm of her gloved hand on its snout, and slid her fingers up between its eyes and over its head. It let out a long, rumbling purr that felt like an earthquake beneath Toji's belly. Rei drew even closer still and put both hands on either side of the great feline's face, and to his even greater surprise, gently tugged on its ears and scratched the back of its head.

"She was not trying to eat you," said Rei.

"How do you know that?"

"Can you not smell it? She thought you were attacking me."

"Well, I'm _not,"_ Toji snapped. "What the hell?"

"You can get off."

Slowly, he released the cat and slid down its flank, and then walked around its side to Rei. It half stood, still crouched as if to pounce, but didn't, and studied him with a barely audible growl, almost too low-frequency to be heard. Rei reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder and favored the cat with a tight-lipped smile, and it stood up, ears sliding forward as it assumed a more relaxed pose. It nudged closer to Rei, nuzzled her cheek, and, believe it or not, licked her.

"You have got to be _kidding_ me," said Toji.

Rei hugged the cat back, careful of its great long fangs, gently stroking its lower jaw. It looked at Toji with a curious amount of intelligence, a strange humanity present in its gaze. It nuzzled Rei, and she made a curious sound. Moving closer to listen, he realized she was _giggling_, a soft sound that seemed foreign on her lips.

"Now what?" said Toji.

"We must make sure they do not hurt her. I will take her back to headquarters."

"You might want to change first. Or shower. Or something. You're covered with blood."

Rei looked down at herself. "Yes, quite."

She patted the sabtertooth tiger on the head. "Wait here for me."

She trotted into the school, and yes, Toji took a longing look at her butt. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure why she was wearing a skin tight latex suit. Why did she and Shinji and that redhead disappear every time there was an-

"Oh," he said.

He looked at the tiger.

The tiger looked at him.

"I'm having a weird day."

He could swear the cat shrugged a little.

* * *

><p>Shinji followed along behind Asuka as she navigated the city streets, trying his damndest not to stare at her behind. Something about her confused him greatly. She was covered with tight, angular muscle that rippled along her slender frame as she moved, and yet the combined effect was that she was even curvier than the other girls he knew. Then again, he didn't see most of them wandering around in skintight suits. Besides her, ahem, interesting features, there was something entirely too familiar about her that bothered him every time he saw her, like he'd seen her before somewhere.<p>

She looked over her shoulder and met his dull blue eyes with her bright, sky-hued ones. "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing," he squeaked.

She shrugged and continued on, wandering seemingly aimlessly until she said, "Ah, here it is."

"What?"

"An emergency access shaft. Didn't you look at the map?"

He shook his head, and she snorted derisively.

"Follow me."

In what appeared to be a vacant lot surrounded by chain link fence that was secured with a heavy padlock. Asuka gripped it with her bare left hand and didn't so much as pull on it as squeeze it for a moment, until the metal softened and she yanked it loose with a grunt. He could feel the heat radiating from it as she tossed it to her side and kicked the gate open with a ringing sound of vibrating chain-link. He followed her through it, ducking under the gate even though it was well over his head.

Inside the chain link was a simple wooden toolshed at the rear of the lot. Asuka pulled the door open, and revealed a pair of elevator doors and a set of buttons. She pressed one, and almost at once began tapping her foot. Shinji blinked.

"Wow," he muttered.

"It's a secret underground base," Asuka rolled her eyes.

"It's not really a secret," Shinji shrugged.

"But it has secrets."

He wasn't sure if she was being serious or not.

The doors accordioned open and she stepped inside, pointing to a place beside her, and he instinctively took it. She pressed the button and the doors went closed, bouncing neatly shut. The movement of the elevator jolted him, and he resisted the urge to tap his foot, and ended up wringing his hands instead. He should ask for a plugsuit with pockets, he thought.

"Why are you behaving that way?"

He blinked. "Uh," he said, "I really don't know."

She shrugged and waited patiently, standing in a relaxed, yet attentive pose. Neither one of them looked at each other.

"So," he said.

"What?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Is there something you wish to say?"

"Not really."

"You seem to."

"I don't!"

She rolled her eyes at him. Finally, the counter clicked around and the doors opened, and he followed her out. They were in a tunnel, dank, wet, and seemingly rarely used. Sitting on a track in front of them was a little open tram car, with an switch at the front. It was probably electric. Asuka slipped into what would have been the driver's seat and waited for him to awkwardly squeak along beside her before activating the machine. It jolted forward and she reached up to push her damp hair around behind her head.

"I need to get this filth out of my hair," she muttered.

"I know," Shinji shrugged. "It gets all gummy."

"Why does it smell like blood?"

He shrugged. "Nobody tells me anything."

She smirked at him and sat back, crossing her arms. Unconsciously, he did the same, nervously looking here and there, shifting his position in the seat. Every time he moved, it made a tiny squeaking sound, and he flinched.

She looked at him, eyes narrowed with annoyance. "Will you sit still?"

"Okay."

The tram slowed, its brakes squealing rather harshly, which seemed to grate on her nerves. When it came to a stop, he got out first and walked up to the nearby door. Something on the wrist of his plugsuit blinked and the door opened automatically, and Asuka followed him through, then quickly passed him and took to walking in front.

"We should go to the bridge," said Shinji. "Misato will know what to do."

"If you insist."

The trip through the winding corridors was made in silence, Shinji pointedly trying to look everywhere but Asuka's legs and her back and where her legs met her back and that whole area, really, which was very firm and nice to look at but he wasn't going to, so he looked at the wall instead. Asuka eyed him a few times but said nothing until they finally found the big set of doors that led onto the bridge, standing open. Shinji was surprised to see it mostly deserted, and looked around. Commander Fuyutsuki was sitting at the desk, staring ahead with his chin on his fist, looking rather bored as a skeleton crew of technicians moved about the room, working at the computer stations.

He saw the pilots enter. "Where did you come from?"

"We were attacked by one of the creatrues, so we reported here," said Asuka.

"Yeah," said Shinji.

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Are you Kyoko's girl?"

Asuka flinched, her eyes darting around the room. "What did you say?"

The old man's brows furrowed, and he turned in what was ordinarily Gendo's chair and took his hand from his face. "Your mother. I haven't seen the two of you together in years."

"Together?" said Shinji.

"Don't you remember? I suppose you might not, you were both toddlers in those days. I used to pull the occasional shift watching the two of you while your mothers worked. It's amazing how age apparently brings the assumption that you know how to handle children."

"What do you mean?" said Asuka. "Watched us do what?"

Fuyutsuki blinked. "I mean, supervised you. We didn't have a day care, per se, since there were so few children, so we stripped the equipment out of a spare lab and set one up for the two of you, and a few others who came and went."

Asuka clicked her mouth shut, and said nothing.

"There was so little joy, then. Technicians would gather around during their off hours to watch the two of you. I remember once," he glanced at Shinji, "You picked up one of your toys and there was a spider under it, and you ran to other side of the room and cried your eyes out. Asuka here," he glanced at her, "picked up a toy dump truck and crushed it for you."

Shinji blushed profusely, and resisted the urge to tug at his collar.

"What happened to my mother after that? Where was my father?"

Fuyutsuki's face darkened. "They were divorced by then. As for your mother… did no one tell you?"

She shook her head. "What happened to-"

Fuyutsuki's phone rang, and he lifted a hand to silence her. For a wonder, she went quiet without protest while he fished it out of his pocket and answered. "Yes, Captain, no, he's not here. You've accounted for them all?"

His eyes widened. "She has a _what?"_

"I…" Asuka trailed off, and then said, hurriedly, "I'm going to take a shower."

Shinji nodded, and Fuytsuki turned to argue with, he presumed, Misato. He watched her go, sighed, and wandered out of the room when he realized Fuyutsuki was too busy to talk to him anymore. He sighed and headed for the locker rooms himself, alone.

* * *

><p>Mari waited patiently for the shelter doors to open, shrugging her bag off her shoulder to carry it in her hand. As she strode into the parking garage, the car pulled out and rolled up to her, and the door swung open automatically. She slipped inside and pulled it shut beside her, and blew a short breath up at her hair. Her glasses flickered as the connection to Jarvis reestablished a series of icons quickly scrolling across her vision while the settings were loaded in the miniature computer embedded in her frames.<p>

"Did it work?"

"Yes," Jarvis chimed in here ear. "A physical connection to the Magi system has been established. We now have access to Nerv's computers."

"Good," said Mari. "What do we know?"

"So far, very little. Breaking the higher level encryption without detection is delicate and will take time. The firewalls and cyber surveillance nets built into these mainframes are extremely complex, Miss Mari. I can tell you that Nerv's resources are devoted to two primary projects, Project Evangelion and Project Primus."

"Primus?" said Mari. "I never heard anyone mention that. Any idea what that means?"

"Primus, the presiding bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the second of the canonical hours, the hour of the day considered as the hour of sunrise, the earliest stage, the chief or best part of an individual, from the Latin root prime, meaning 'the first one'."

"The first one," said Mari.

"You have an incoming call from Ryoji Kaji."

"Oh geeze," Mari huffed. "Take a message."

A moment later, Jarvis chimed again. "He would like to know when you would like to go on your date."

"I never agreed to any date," Mari smirked.

"Good," said Jarvis. "He is not your type."

"He isn't?" Mari blinked. "Say what?"

"What." Said Jarvis.

"Very funny." Mari sighed.

* * *

><p>Outside Berlin, Germany<p>

2005

Johnny tapped the tiny communication bud in his ear. The device had been specially built for him by his sister; it worked by conducting sound directly into his eardrum, and picked up his voice through his own jawbone, allowing covert communications. He wore it today as he walked into the Gehirn Artificial Evolution Lab, German Branch, outside Berlin. The earbud would also allow Pete, Ben, Logan, and Steve, waiting outside, to listen in on his progress.

The place was designed to look nondescript from the outside- a collection of beige, boxy buildings, the sort of brutalist architecture that was increasingly becoming common in a European Union where Doctor Doom's voting bloc held a lot of sway. He parked his motorcycle outside and walked in, right up to the front desk. The lobby was a large, plain room, with a bunch of cheap waiting room chairs, all empty, a few ferns in the corners, and a muted television turned to soap operas. No one idly wandering in looking for directions or employment would wonder what went on inside before they left.

The receptionist at the desk was an old German frump who may have been on the East German swim team at one point. He casually leaned on the desk and gave her his most charming smile and said, "I'm here to see my wife."

She looked up from her celebrity gossip magazine, narrowed her eyes, and boomed, "You are mistaken, sir," and then looked back down.

Johnny's smile went flat. "I'm pretty sure Kyoko works here, Frau Blucher."

The woman's eyes narrowed even further, if that were possible. She looked as if she were trying to squint him to death. "You. Are. Mistaken," she said, carefully pausing after each word for emphasis."

Johnny sighed. "I'm going in there, and I'm leaving with my wife."

For emphasis, he put his hands on the receptionists' magazine, focused his will, and in a flash of heat it turned into a cloud of ash. The woman immediately jumped up, kicked at something under the desk, and ran for the door behind her.

A mountain came through the door behind him. Ben Grimm was too large and in too much of a hurry to fit through the revolving door, so he simply tore it out and tossed it aside, stooped under the lintel, and stood to his full height as he walked inside, the carpeted floor groaning and buckling under his weight. He was flanked by Peter Parker, sans mask, dressed in his white uniform jumpsuit under a long coat, and Logan in his Canadian Tuxedo.

"Sue is going to kill me for this," Peter muttered.

"Let's go," Johnny turned and walked past the receptionist's desk.

The door at the far end of the hall was locked, but it wasn't built to stand up to the equivalent of the heat five hundred miles from the surface of the sun. When Johnny raised his hand, the heavy metal buckled and turned white hot, melting into a sizzling puddle at the base of a circular hole. Johnny stepped through, followed by Pete, deftly jumping over it; Logan seemed unperturbed by the heat and Ben needed a bigger opening, and made one.

"Where are we going, kid?" the rocky giant rumbled.

"I have no idea," Johnny admitted. "I kind of hoped the whole smashing through the door thing would make my point."

Pete sighed. "Let's find a computer terminal. If I can-"

"If you make some kind of web joke, I'm going to kill you," Johnny muttered.

Pete raised his hands. "Look, let's keep going."

The corridor led to what was, in fact, a series of security doors, none of which fared any better than the first. There were spinning warning lights flashing along the ceiling. Pete looked up at them and swallowed, nervously.

"I hate to sound cliché, but my spider-sense is tingling," he said as he examined the ceiling. "Are you sure she's not just mad at you?"

"She hasn't returned my phone calls or emails for a month," Johnny snapped. "That isn't like her. There's something wrong, I'm sure of it."

Finally, they found an office off one of the hallways, and Pete settled down to do this thing. There was a lot of beeping and keyboard clickety-clacking, and Ben had to stand in the hallway as he couldn't fit through the door. After what felt like forever, he leaned close to the screen, and his eyes widened.

"She is here," he said softly. "In the infirmary. Psych ward."

"What?" Johnny said softly. "Why…"

"Let's go," Logan grunted. "We're wastin' time."

The place was set up to be twisty and confusing, and it took two wrong turns to find the ward. The place seemed oddly empty, as if it had been cleared out at their approach. The ward was a half dozen rooms arranged around a nurses' station. Johnny walked around behind it and found everything hastily cleared out. The shelves under the desk were empty, and the computer tower next to the monitor had been picked up, the cables cast off and left where they lay. There was something odd going on.

Logan pushed out from under the curtain obscuring a room at the far end of the ward. No one spoke.

"Kid," he said softly, "don't go in there."

"What?" Johnny whispered.

There was something wrong. His stomach lurched. Logan tried to stop him but he brushed past. The man was inordinately heavy, and for good reason, but Johnny pushed him aside and went into the room. He was surprised. He found it empty. The bed was rumpled as if someone had recently been lying in it. When he put his hand on it, it was still warm. He froze.

There was a raggedy doll with red hair lying on the bed. The head was torn off, and the limp little body was leaking stuffing everywhere. He heard an odd, rhythmic creaking from the closet at the far side of the room. Slowly, he paced over to it, and pushed the door open. There was a pipe across the ceiling of the closet. From that pipe hung a long extension cord, looped around itself for strength, and tied into a noose.

From that noose hung his wife, difting slowly back and forth. Gingerly, he reached out and touched her hand. She was still warm.

He sank to his knees. Some part of him wanted to scream or cry, but he'd forgotten how, the sounds dying in his throat. He fell onto his side and lay there for a time in the fetal position before Peter picked him up and carried him away from her still swinging body. He and Logan steadied Johnny as he stood up and leaned on his knees. Then, he finally managed to whisper,

"Where's my little girl?"

The smell of motor oil filled the room, and there was a heavy clanking sound. Victor von Doom stood the hallway behind them. Johnny gazed past his companions at him for a moment in dull shock, his face reflecting in a blur on the burnished armored visage of the tyrant's mask, frozen in a grimace as ever. He took a few halting, stumbling steps forward, and Pete shot a hand out to grab his arm and immediately pulled it back. It was too hot.

"What did you do?" Johnny whispered.

"I only just arrived, whelp. If you had not invaded and and disrupted her care, we may have-"

"What _did you __**DO?**_" Johnny roared.

Ben stepped forward. He was astonishingly quick and nimble for all his size. He had Doom by the collar in one massive rocky fist, and his hand resting on Johnny's shoulder with almost frightening gentleness. He pushed Doom into the wall, hard, and leaned into him.

"Gentlemen," Doom rumbled, "I suggest you leave, or I will have to file protests with your respective governments. As I recall, Mister Logan and Doctor Parker are representatives of Canada and the United States, respectively."

Johnny pushed into Ben's hand. "You son of a bitch, don't start on me with that. This isn't a _game_, Doom. My wife-"

_"She was _my_ wife!"_ Doom roared. "_She forsook you and chose me!" _

"Stealing her from me wasn't good enough! You had to _murder her!" _

"Johnny," Ben said, "Don't-"

"Pete!" Logan shouted, "Get down!"

"**FLAME ON!**"

And it all went to hell.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

Thanks to Not-Always-Fanfiction for the pre-read. There were, originally, a number of thoroughly ridiculous errors in this chapter, mostly the product of thinking too fast for what I was typing.


	11. Prelude to War

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 11: Prelude to War

* * *

><p>Her eyes flicked open, and the cold fluid stung them. She floated, weightless in a thick, clear, viscous fluid that muffled the world around her and made the rumble of her own breathing the only sound she truly heard. Bandages wrapped tightly around her chest, pressing sensors into her flesh. More silicone pads ran down her belly and clung to her forehead, held by thick tape that pulled at her skin. There was some sort of heavy metallic device clamped around her pelvis, digging into her skin. There was blood in the fluid and she thought it was hers.<p>

She lay on her back in a tank, the sides and walls burnished metal lit from above. The bright light overhead made her eyes wince and turned the world outside the fluid into a white-hot haze. She blinked it away, and the purple streaks in her vision from the stinging light rapidly faded. There was a sudden itch all over her body, but it was worst on her hands. She looked down, twisting uncomfortably with a heavy re-breather on her face, fixed to a long plastic tube, and pulled at the cuffed leather restraints that held her bare arms to the bottom of the tank. There were thin tubes running to needles all over her body. Her hands itched.

She pulled at the cuffs and in the weightlessness of the fluid, the action pressed her back to the cold metal bottom of the tub. The tops of her hands itched, and she rubbed them furiously on her thighs, trying to cool the burning sensation. She lifted her hand up and felt a strange spasm, and electric pain ran up her arm, like she'd punched a wall. Two razor-thin strips of metal, pointed like claws, erupted from the back of her hand in a cloud of blood and slid through the liquid, as long as her forearm.

She screamed against the mask and it came out as a harsh gurgle. She bucked and writhed against the restraints and felt the same pain in her other hand, and then in her feet. A set of single razor-thin claws, one for each foot, erupted next to each of her big toes. She tried to turn, to pull the leather cuffs away from the bottom of the tub, but they were too thick.

A thick arm in a black rubber glove reached down into the liquid, clamped down on her neck, and forced her to the bottom. She writhed against it, kicking, but her feet were held down, too. A shadow passed over the blinding light and the other arm reached in, and started undoing her restraints. When her arm was free she slashed wildly, and felt the sudden coldness of the air on her wet hand. When all of the restraints were undone, the hand crushed around her windpipe and pulled her free.

She landed on a cold, hard tile floor, and gasped. The metal claws bit into her cheeks as she fumbled at the mask and finally tore it off, the elastic straps snapping painfully against her skin. Bleeding, she got up unsteadily, her bare feet sliding across the floor in the slime. The world was a too-bright haze, and she could barely see, but she smelled. The world stank of the tang of hot electronics and the coppery scent of blood and an awful, medicinal, antiseptic smell. The heavy black gloved hands grabbed her and spun her around, and she screamed and sank her claws into his chest up to the fist. The thin ribbons of metal slid into flesh with sickening eyes, and she felt her stomach lurch.

Her eyes began to clear. The man with the gloves was tall and broad, and wore a lab coat. Her fists pressed against his chest, but there was no sign of pain on his pale face. Slowly, she slid her hands away from him, pulling the blades slowly from his flesh. No blood stained them, and his checked shirt was unmarked. A slow stain of black ink spread across the white of his coat, where she'd speared through a pen. He smirked at her. Red. His eyes were red.

"Calm," he whispered, "no harm done."

She continued to back away, instinctively covering herself with her forearms. The thin bandages offered little in the way of modesty, and she was suddenly cold. She brushed the auburn hair out of her eyes, joining it to the slicked bob that clung to her head and neck. She backed away from the strange pale man until she hit a wall.

She was in a concrete room, dominated by the tank. Above it was some sort of apparatus, from which trailed a dozen long, thin tubes that dangled into the fluid. The device, a snaking collection of cables and tubes and pumps, was attached to some kind of reservoir set on the floor. In it, a thick, silvery liquid bubbled and splattered on itself, making little popping and slurping sounds. The pale man took a step towards her, making gentle shushing sounds, and she held her claws out.

She struggled to find the words. They came out thick, distorted, her voice unused to speaking. "Stay away."

"Shhh," said the strange pale man. "My name is Nathaniel. I won't hurt you. Stay calm."

"Who are you?" she demanded, flicking her claws at him for emphasis. "Wait…"

She grabbed the side of her head. When she tried to think, tried to recall anything that happened before she emerged from the tank, there was only white, blinding pain. She pressed her eyes shut and sucked in a breath, trying to force out a name, a place, anything, but there was nothing. She knew how to speak, how to walk, but there were no memories associated with the action, only blankness. Tears strung her cheeks.

"What did you do to me?"

The pale man wrapped her up in his strong arms, ignoring the razors. "It's alright. You're alright."

"Who am I? Why can't I remember?"

"You were hurt," he whispered. "I fixed you. Your name is Mana. Mana Kirishima."

"It is?"

"Yes," he stroked her hair, "You're a very special girl."

Carefully, he supported her with his great strength, holding her around her shoulders and hips while he guided her out of the bright room and into a larger one. Slowly, he sat down with her, on a bench. She looked around the room and shivered. There were _things_ in there, all around the big space in glass tubes, and some of them looked dead. Some of them looked like people, but wrong, they were scaly, like lizards. On the other end of the room was a single tube against the wall, bigger than the others. In it was a boy, a beautiful boy with silver hair, his eyes pressed tightly shut, hanging weightless in viscous red fluid.

"Who is that?"

The strange pale man pressed her head into his chest and stroked her neck gently, reassuringly, and she calmed herself.

"He's very special, too, and we have to protect him. He's going to save us, Mana, but he needs your help. He needs you to be calm. Can you be calm?"

"Good. Let's work on putting those claws, away, shall we?"

She saw her face reflected in the glass of the tubes. She knew she'd cut herself, felt the sting of the blades against her cheeks, but she was unmarked. Slowly, achingly, grindingly, they slid back into her hands, and then into her feet. She stared at her skin. There were faint lines of blood, but when she touched them with her fingertips, they swept away, leaving the skin unmarked. She gasped.

"See? Very special. Now, let's get these bandages off."

* * *

><p>Heat was never a concern for Asuka. She only ever broke out in a sweat when that sweat was cold, in the depths of the night when a dream she could never remember drover her out of sleep and left her lying on her sleeping mat, slick with her own perspiration and smelling unpleasantly of fear. The cold pressed in on her suddenly, and she lifted her head from her pillow a little and looked around the room, irrationally afraid that she was being watched. The sun was beginning to peak in the window as the sky faded from black to purple, and she would rise soon anyway, and so sat up. She kept her right hand exposed, giving in to her unease, ready to vaporize anything that might be planning on accosting her. Instead, a penguin waddled by her door. She watched Pen-Pen's scaly feet pad past where she sat to the bathroom, and with a sigh blew her hair out of her eyes. She touched her cheeks. They were wet.<p>

Slowly, she sat up, arched her back to stretch, and then pitched forward, her forearms crossed in front of her. Her back made a small popping sound. She piled her damp hair behind her neck and stole out into the apartment, carefully sliding the door open. Across from her in what was essentially a closet, Shinji lay. She put the tips of her fingers on the thin material of his door. He had no lock- none of them did. She was used to any door being unlocked at her request, but to have no lock at all felt incomplete, somehow. Slowly, she slid the door open, her breath catching when it hung up for a moment and she was afraid it would squeak. She let it out when it jumped over the burr in the track and slid to the fully open position.

She stepped inside, surprised by the orderliness and neatness of his small chamber. He kept his clothes stowed away in the nightstand by his bed mat, and a selection of uniform shirts and pants hanging in his closet, which was actually a bar running across a small nook- this whole _room_ was 'the closet'. He had little else, just a pair of shoes and some books and a battered cello case. A strange urge came over her, and she crept to where he lay and knelt down, resting her hands on her knees. He was curled away from her in the fetal position, his chest moving slowly, shallowly, and regularly. He made a small sound and hugged his pillow to his face in his sleep, and she froze, wondering how she would explain herself if he awoke. She started to stand up, and she was struck by an odd impulse.

Slowly, haltingly, she reached over and rested the back of her hand on his cheek. He stirred and mumbled something, but didn't wake. He was warm, blissfully warm, and an idea arrived unbidden in her head. Carefully, she crawled over to the door and slid it closed, then returned to his side on her hands and knees, glancing over her shoulder now and then to see if she had been spotted by Misato, or, absurdly, the penguin. When she saw that she was alone, she glanced at the clock. It was three thirty in the morning, and she normally rose in about an hour or an hour and a half anyway, naturally awakening before the sun. She should go back to her room, but her room was cold, and Shinji was warm, and in her half-awake state, it made perfect sense when she carefully untucked the blanket he had curled around his body, lifted it, and slid under it, next to him.

He was warm all over, not just on his face. The feeling of warmth was a peculiar one, and she found herself unable to resist it. She pressed against his back and ran her arms up under his, crossing his chest with her right and supporting his side with her left. She pulled her legs up and worked them under his, sliding her bare skin against his pajamas, which still radiated warmth. Finally, she leaned her cheek on the back of his head, and realized she didn't feel cold at all, anymore, except on her back. Slowly, she untangled her arm and pulled the blanket up over her body and threw it over him again, and closed her eyes. It felt calm, and familiar, and though she knew not why, she liked it. Sleep, thick and heavy, rolled up behind her and fell on her like a wave, and soon she was breathing regular, small breaths into the back of his neck, a soft smile on her face.

She woke to gentle prodding at her shoulder. She swallowed, hard, and turned. Misato was crouched beside her, a concerned look on her face. She looked different in the dark with her hair drawn up into a bun and her face stripped of makeup, almost motherly. She pulled on Asuka shoulder and whispered sharply.

"Get up."

Slowly, she dis-entwined herself from Shinji. He made small sounds and stirred, but didn't move, except to draw in more tightly on himself in her absence. She waited for a moment, seated by his side, until Misato spoke, her voice almost too loud to be a proper whisper.

"Kitchen. Now."

Slowly, blearily, Asuka stood up and followed her into the kitchen, closing Shinji's door behind her. She realized her mistake when she passed her room, and noticed her own door standing open. She slid it closed as she passed, and then padded into the kitchen on her bare feet. Misato took a seat and sipped from a can of coffee, her eyes underlined by dark patches from tiredness. Asuka sat down opposite her and blinked. Though she was wide awake, fatigued tugged at the back of her eyes, and she wanted to return to sleep. She glanced at the clock. She had been out for perhaps an hour. It was odd for her to feel tired at this time at all.

"What were you doing?" Misato said quietly.

"I…" Asuka trailed off. "I was cold. He felt warm. It made sense at the time."

Misato nodded slowly. She put the can of coffee down with a soft clink and worried at her eyes with her fingertips and thumb, and then pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm not old enough."

"Doing this?"

"The talk," said Misato.

Asuka blinked. "I don't understand."

"Look," Misato sighed. "I don't know much about your life in Latveria, Asuka. Did anyone ever talk to you about the birds and the bees?"

Asuka tilted her head. "The what?"

Misato sighed. "You know, boys and girls. Men and women."

Asuka's eyes widened in recognition, and she nodded. "Yes, I have a full understanding of reproductive issues."

Misato leaned back in her chair, craned her head back, and blew out a long breath. Asuka had the distinct impression that she wanted to laugh, but was trying very hard not to.

"That's not quite what I mean. Did anyone ever talk to you about… feelings? Relationships?"

Asuka's eyes narrowed. "Victor von Doom does not talk about 'feelings'."

Misato did laugh then, sharp and bitter. "I guess not. Do you like Shinji?"

Asuka started. "I am not averse to him."

Misato snorted and took a drink of her coffee. "Are you attracted to him, Asuka? Did you just hug him because he made you feel _warm?"_

Asuka blinked and rested her hands in her lap, and turned away to study the floor for a moment. "I'm not sure. There is something else, but I have never felt something like this before. He makes me feel… things, sometimes."

"Things?"

"I have never discussed these matters before."

"I can tell," Misato leaned back in her chair, sliding down the back a little. She yawned. "I'm listening."

Asuka shrugged. "I… of late, I have felt… uncertain about things. There are times… I don't know. von Doom is the only man I have ever known, and Shinji is nothing like him, but…"

"But," said Misato.

"At first, when we piloted, I was angered. I thought he was showing off, or trying to upstage me, but each time it becomes clearer and clearer that he hates the danger and only pushes himself to these feats out of fear for my safety."

Misato nodded. "Yeah. I would have just said 'he cares', but I guess I didn't get all that fancy schoolin'."

Asuka blinked. "I thought you were an officer. Don't you-"

Misato waved her hand. "I'm kidding."

"Oh," said Asuka. "I don't understand why you're asking me this."

"Because you crawled into his bed, Asuka. You don't just do that."

Asuka sat up and crossed her arms. "I did not have-"

"That's not what I meant," said Misato, cutting her off. "Sleeping with someone like that, sharing their space, is a very intimate thing. You don't just skip right to it. You would have scared the shit out of him when he woke up, maybe scared him off permanently."

"But-"

"Look, princess. I know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night and wish there was somebody there, I really do. I just want to stop you from rushing into something and ruining it for the both of you. For what it's worth, I think he likes you, too. He just doesn't really get it, yet. He's had a rough life."

"I see," said Asuka. "What do you suggest I do?"

Misato snorted again, then took a sip of her beer. "You really are clueless about this, aren't you?"

Asuka shrugged. She thought she should be insulted, but couldn't raise the energy. Instead, she slumped back in the chair. Misato studied her for a moment, then leaned forward, resting her arms on the table.

"You said something is bothering you. What?"

Asuka looked up. "I… I don't want to talk about this."

Misato sat up and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, look. If you do, I'm here. Don't lay there and stew about stuff, okay? Wake me up. Talk to me. It's what I'm here for. What woke you up, anyway? Bad dream?"

Asuka looked at her blankly, and her brows furrowed in an expression of alarm. "I don't know," she whispered.

* * *

><p>2008<p>

Ritsuko opened the door to her tiny studio, slid inside, and let out a long breath. She made carefully sure that the door was triply secured and took all of two steps into the short hallway before she shrugged off her loose jacket, undid the straps, and let the cool air play over her back as her wings unfolded and thumped against the wall on either side. She stopped by the mirror to look at the mass of white downy feathers erupting from her back and choke down her disgust. She was thinking about dying her hair.

"You look like an angel," Misato slurred.

She was sitting on Ritsuko's bed in the corner, back up against the wall, and she looked like hell. Her hair was a tangled mess and her makeup had run, mascara streaking to show the tracks of her tears. She chuckled at some secret joke, chest heaving, and Ritsuko realized she was barefoot and wearing nothing but a long t-shirt, which meant she'd travelled here from her apartment that way. Ritsuko swallowed hard and walked into the main room of the apartment, which doubled as a bedroom and living room and library and office, with a little alcove kitchen in the corner and a small balcony. Misato upended a bottle of scotch and took a long pull from it, and it made a little ping sound when she lowered it, nearly empty. She was sitting in the dark, her big eyes too-intent on Ritsuko.

"'Cmere," Misato slid off the bed, dropping her bottle. It rolled across the floor, the remnants of its contents sloshing, pushing it along a little further.

"Misato?" Ritsuko said dumbly. "What happened?"

She grinned stupidly. "I wrecked my car. 'tsokay, I had my eyes on this blue one. I like blue."

She giggled, as if that were hilarious.

"Kaji left me," said Misato, as she slid her arms around Ritsuko. "Everybody leaves me. Dad. Kaji. You."

"I-I didn't leave," said Ritsuko. "You moved out!"

"Doesn't matter," said Misato, "'ts always the same."

Ritsuko stood there, staring at her friend. Her breath stank of alcohol, and she was shaky on her feet. Her toes were bleeding from walking barefoot on asphalt, rubbed raw. She leaned into Ritsuko and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Can I ask you question," Misato said as she slumped against her.

"Uh," said Ritsuko.

"Can you fly? You're really light. I bet you can fly. How much do you weigh, anyway?"

Ritsuko swallowed. "I don't know, about seventy-"

Misato stood up again, and pressed her hips to Ritsuko's, and rested her arm around her waist. Her other hand wandered up her bare back and slid along the root of her wing, and Ritsuko gasped in shock, her face turning a florid pink as the errant limb twitched in response.

"Don't do that, I-"

"Feels good, don't it," said Misato.

"Misato," Ritsuko said indignantly, "I don't think you-"

Misato cut her off, with her lips.

It took her a moment to process what was going on. The stink of beer and runny cosmetics and old perfrume and body odor assaulted her. Misato's mouth tasted acidy and bitter, like a bad hangover, and her lips were dry and cracked, but they were warm, and soft, and insistent. Her tongue flickered out over her teeth and danced lightly against Ritsuko's upper lip for a moment before Misato squeezed her lower lip with her own, and as she pulled away, tugged it away from her teeth a little.

Ritsuko stared at her, dumbstruck. No one had ever kissed her before.

When Misato slid both hands up and cupped her cheeks and pulled her into a deeper, longer kiss, she didn't stand a chance.

* * *

><p>Hikari's morning routine began afresh with the oddly mournful bleating of her alarm clock, taped together and still resting on the now also taped together remnants of her smashed night stand. She sat up, still aching days later from wrestling with a tyrannosaur, and pulled at the back of her neck with her hands. She stood up, shakily, and headed to the bathroom. She looked in on Nozomi on the way, and found her sleeping peacefully. Kodama was already awake and walking around in her bathrobe, her wet hair piled up in a towel on her head.<p>

"Morning," Hikari groaned.

"Morning," Kodama smiled.

Hikari felt a little sick as she showered, dressed, and ate her toast. She was going to disobey her sister, and by proxy her father. She was going to march down to the school, which was finally in session after a freaking dinosaur ripped the front doors off, and she was going to walk up to Shinji Ikari and tell him that her family is wrong, and if they aren't, she doesn't want to be right, and that they have a real chance at something special. She was going to tell him that.

The train ride to school was tense. She felt packed in with all of the other students, and wondered if she shouldn't have gone for a swing instead. When the train let out she almost ran down the street and up the steps into the school, half pushing her way through the crowd of students. She spotted Shinji's irregular mop of brown hair and started towards him, and froze.

Asuka stood next to him, resplendent in her uniform, hair twisted into a tight braid behind her head, gleaming in the morning light like freshly beaten copper. She touched Shinji's arm and smiled, and he blushed. She was asking him something, by the looks of it, and she had a pink sheet of paper in her hand. Shinji's jaw dropped.

The class rep appeared beside her, a stack of similar papers in her hand. She handed one to Hikari.

"What's this?" said Hikari.

"I have a name," the class rep muttered.

"What is it?"

"A flyer for the dance," the class rep sighed.

"Dance?"

"It's a 'Sadie Hawkins' dance," the class rep shrugged, stumbling a little over the foreign words. "I've never heard of it, either. It's some American tradition of girls asking boys to a dance."

Her eyes drifted over the rep's shoulder. Asuka was smiling, and Shinji was nodding.

Oh.

Hikari crumpled the paper in her hand. "Oh," she said.

"Yeah," said the class rep. "Kinda weird, if you ask me. They just announced it this morning. Well, good luck."

Asuka fairly strutted along, Shinji in tow, grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary, practically staring a challenge at the other girls in the hallway, who scowled at her, but looked somewhat relieved that she hadn't approached _their_ prospects. The worst rub was her gaze sweeping over Hikari. She didn't even know her, dismissed her without a thought. Hikari slumped.

A sudden, guilty thought occurred to her. There was still Toji. She saw him beside his locker with Kensuke, who adjusted his glasses and coughed when he saw her. She started making her way over, pink sheet in hand, and then it happened.

Ayanami walked past her, clutching her pink sheet.

"Excuse me," said Ayanami, brushing past.

Hikari eyed her warily, and to her surprise, she walked right up to Toji.

"Suzahara," said Rei.

Toji turned around and smiled. "Rei?"

She thrust out her fist, and in it the crumpled pink sheet. "You will accompany me to this 'dance'."

"You gotta be kidding me," Hikari muttered.

Toji walked away with Rei, and Hikari stood in the hall, rubbing her arm with her hand. Kensuke stared at her.

"Don't even think about it," she snapped.

Dejected, he shrugged and wandered off, muttering to himself.

* * *

><p>When she walked into the Ritsuko's lab and carefully locked the door behind her, Misato looked like the cat who caught the canary. She flopped down in a side chair, still grinning, and Ritsuko eyed her warily, flicking her gaze back and forth between the operations director and Maya, who had stopped working and turned around, holding something in her hand. Ritsuko crushed out her cigarette and turned around, using her long legs to swivel her chair in a tight circle.<p>

"What did you do?"

Misato never stopped grinning. "I called the school."

"And why, exactly, did you do that?" Ritsuko said, warily.

"I told the administrator to schedule a dance. A Sadie Hawkins dance."

"A what?" said Maya.

"It's an American thing. Girls ask guys, instead of the other way."

"And why did you do that?" said Ritsuko.

Misato's grin widened. "Because I know a certain boy who wouldn't ask anybody to a regular dance, even if he _should_, that's why."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Everything we have going on, and you're trying to set your pilots up on a _date_?"

"Why not?"

"What if it goes badly? What if it impacts their synch ratios? What if one of them does something stupid to protect the other one in combat? What's wrong with you?"

Misato blinked, and her smile went flat. "They do that anyway. Shinji practically ripped that last one apart with his bare hands after it damaged Unit Two in the last battle. It's not like this should be a shock, Rits. Two people thrown together in a desperate situation tend to end up fooling around."

A cold silence fell on the room. The two older women stared at each other for a moment. Maya swallowed, hard, and held out the stiff piece of paper she held in her hands.

"What's this?" Misato said absently, taking it from her.

"A still from one of the security cam-"

"Maya!" Ritsuko screamed, "_Don't!" _

Misato took the picture. Her eyes widened. A grainy, black and white image showed a blurred black shape, swinging from one side of the frame to the other on an almost invisible strand of silvery material. A white spider was emblazoned across the figure's chest. Misato's eyes slid over the blank white eyes, like the patches of false eyes on a moth's wings, and the wide, slavering jaws, filled with needle teeth. Her hand went slack and the printout slid out of her hand. She sat for a moment, breathing, face slack, and then she screamed. It was a high pitched, gurgling shriek, and with it she jumped up and kicked the chair out from under her and fell on the floor. With her hands and feet she pushed herself along into the corner and drew her legs up to her chest, shivering. She buried her face in her arms and sobbed, her whole body shaking with the movement.

Ritsuko jumped up and ran to her side, dropped down, and pulled her into an embrace, pulling Misato's head into her chest. Maya sat in her chair, slack-jawed, watching the pair. Ritsuko whispered something soothing to her, but Misato broke out in another sob, half screaming, her voice ragged.

"It came back! It came back! They lied to me! They said it wasn't real! _It's real!"_

Ritsuko looked at Maya. Misato kept whimpering, "it's real," over and over, rocking herself.

The alarm went off. Blue lights flashed, warning icons appeared on every screen. Maya jumped up. Ritsuko stood up.

"Stay here, with her. Keep her calm. I've got some… look, there's some pills in my desk. If she gets too bad, give her one."

"But-"

"She might hurt herself. Stay here, Maya. Please."

* * *

><p>"Once again, Miss Mari, I must advise against this."<p>

Mari waved her hand in front of her face. The augmented lenses in her glasses projected a trail of data following it, noting her pulse, skin temperature and conductivity. She sat back, kicked a stocking-clad leg over her knee, and waited. The air was somewhat crisp today. There was no winter proper in Tokyo-3, but there was an almost-autumn, and it was beginning to set in, at least in the mornings and afternoons. The place always surprised her when she walked around. It was trying too hard to be high tech, with escalators and buildings that turned in the sun to gather power and conduct light to the cavern below, like sails turning in the wind. For all that, there were simple things, like the noodle shop with its wrought iron outdoor tables and chairs, where she was meeting Ryoji Kaji for lunch.

The man himself appeared, almost deliberately late. Mari dropped her shoulder bag on the ground under the chair and brushed her hair back from her eyes, giving it a flirty little flip as she did. She also stroked the sensor on the side of her glasses that signaled for Jarvis to activate the ant-sized ambulatory tracking probe in the bag, so that it would crawl out and seek Kaji's foot as he lackadaisically walked up to her with his hands in his pockets. A chime in her ear told her it had climbed up the side of his scuffed leather shoe and was now clinging to one of his aglets.

She smiled as he sat down.

"So, enjoying the city?"

"it's beautiful," she looked around, gesturing with her idle hand. "Very modern. Nerv must have paid a fortune for architects for all of this."

"The best designers in the world," Kaji took out a crumpled cigarette and put it in his mouth. "The guy who designed the iPad designed the Nerv tower downtown, where they built that silly science exhibit."

"It's all very clean and modern," she shrugged. "I like clean and modern things. Machines. Runs in the family, I guess."

Kaji nodded. "What are you doing here, anyway? I heard you were talking about a deal with Nerv, but I just don't see it. Has our fair climate beguiled you?"

"Something like that." She smirked, leaning on her hand.

Kaji's smirk widened into a grin.

"Besides," she said guardedly, "I heard things. My father was looking into some things over here, and I wanted to carry on the legacy."

"Ah," Kaji said, sitting up. "About that…"

"Oh?"

"Be careful where you stick your nose around here. This place is more dangerous than it looks. Nerv has a lot of secrets."

"You sound like a spy, or something," Mari leaned her chin on her fists. She batted her eyelashes a little and smiled. "What exactly is it you inspect, anyway?"

He looked around nervously. "I'd rather not say. There's a lot of classified material."

"Oh," Mari shrugged. "I wasn't interested in Project E. I'm talking to Akagi about that. I'm wondering what the hell Project Primus is. I can't even get the names of whoever is working on it, and…"

Kaji leaned forward, suddenly grave. "Leave this alone. Please."

She blinked. "That serious, huh?"

He sighed, and sat back.

"Look, the real reason I asked you to meet me here is to tell you to go home. You're out of you're league."

Her eyes narrowed. "I can handle myself."

"I wouldn't want to see you get hurt."

Mari snorted. "You sound like my dad."

Kaji stared at her for a minute, then calmly, slowly got up and walked away, shuddering. Mari watched him go and sighed.

"Very smooth, Mari," she said to herself.

"I, for one, find the situation agreeable," said Jarvis.

"Oh shut up," Mari snapped.

"Miss Mari, I am detecting increased chatter in Nerv's systems. I believe they are about to-"

Before he could finish, the evacuation alarm spooled up, rising from a low hum to a piercing whine that seemed to come from everywhere. The workers behind the counter in the noodle shop dropped a metal shutter down and flooded out the back door, and there was a sudden chorus of honking horns, screeching tires, and shouts. Mari stood up.

"Jarvis," said Mari. "Mark Ten to my position."

"Inbound," said Jarvis. "Five minutes. You are aware that you will not be able to damage the creature."

"I know, but I want to see what we're dealing with first hand. Bring it down by the car."

She jumped to her feet and ran around and down the sidewalk, towards where she had parked the car on the top deck of a three-level garage. The wait in a surprisingly grimy and seedy elevator took about a minute, and she ran out onto the roof as the suit came roaring over the side, came to a hover, and landed with a metallic clang next to the car. The door popped open as she ran up to it and she slipped inside, shimmied out of her sun dress, and started pulling on the fibrous undersuit. The suit opened up to admit her as she padded over to it and slipped her legs inside.

"Well?" she said as the suit closed around her. The icons flooded across her screen, followed by power readings a series of flashing icons showing all systems fully operational.

"I have not fully broken Nerv's encryption protocols, but the new creature is approaching from the south, along the coast."

"Can we break into their comms again?"

"Affirmative. Breaking in now."

"Right, silence my mic and don't transmit, I don't want them to catch on that we're listening. Did you get the data on the surveillance grid?"

"Indeed."

"Great," Mari grinned, stomping over to the edge of the roof. "Fire up the stealth and jamming suites, go full silent mode, and put the Kaji tracker up on the screen. I want to see what he's doing."

* * *

><p>Ritsuko took a deep breath and strode out onto the lower platform. As usual, no one paid her much mind; her appearance there was a standard part of any combat operation. The problem was that she walked to the center of the platform and coughed.<p>

"Captain Katsuragi won't be joining us. I am assuming the position of Operations Director in her place."

"And why not?" Fuyutsuki said from behind her.

"It relates to classified materials, sir," Ritsuko said, spinning on her heels. "I was hoping I could explain later."

Her eyes drifted to the empty desk beside the old man, and lingered there for a moment. "Wait, where's the Commander?"

"Overseeing an operation elsewhere," Fuyutsuki said calmly. "We will be conducting this operation without him."

"Very well," Ritsuko turned, trying to look as military as she could.

She arched her back and winced; her harness was chafing her particularly badly today. She turned around and faced the bridge proper, looking out over the three techs in front of her to the dozens below and the MAGI complex on the lower deck.

"What is the status of the pilots?"

"Suiting up now," said Aoba, touching his earpiece. "Ready for launch in five minutes."

"Let's see it."

"I have a feed from the outer defensive perimeter. It's moving up the coastline."

Ritsuko nodded, and the screen flickered, the wireframe overlay of the terrain and the project position of the blue pattern replaced by a grainy, out of focus, badly framed feed of a nightmarish creature stomping towards the beach, its thick legs pushing out frothy waves in the water as it moved. It was hunched and simian in shape, and did not have a head as such, rather, its massively overbuilt chest and shoulders house what might have been eyes buried deep in dark cavities above the shining red sphere of the core. On the upper part of its body, where its neck should have been, was a mask-like shape, a dome of chalky bone neatly divided into a yin and yang shape by a cleft. It dangled long arms at its sides, heavy, wickedly sharp talons teasing along the water's surface. By the comparison to the ruined buildings through which it passed, it was at least fifty percent larger than an Eva.

"Why do they always have to be so damned big?" said Ritsuko.

"Pilots are in the Evas," said Hyuga.

Just as he spoke, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei appeared along the bottom of the screen, their faces set in concentration, save for the latter, who had her usual blank stare. Ritsuko shuddered a little bit as her eyes met the pale girls' crimson ones, and hated herself for it.

"Pilots," said Ritsuko. "You will be proceeding to launch tracks 112-114. There you will collect armaments and proceed on foot to the target location. Rei, you still have the lowest synch ratio. I want you to hang back with the positron rifle. Asuka and Shinji, I want you to cover each other with the rifles and move up on it. Let's see what it does before we go charging in."

"Roger," Shinji and Rei replied. Asuka scowled, but nodded.

"Proceed to the launch tubes."

The faces of the pilots twisted in concentration as they walked their Evas out of the cages and to the launch tubes. It would be several minutes between their launch from the Geofront to the surface, as they would be moving at an angle towards the extreme limit of the launch system. At this rate, it was better to keep the damned things outside the city entirely if at all possible. The last one had been so big that merely by walking around, it weakened the armor and did extensive damage to the waterfront. Ritsuko folded her arms around herself, glanced around, and then stiffened, trying to look commanding and professional.

"Status?"

"Evas en route. Thirty seconds."

She took a deep breath.

The camera view switched to a split-screen of the three launch pads. All three Evas bobbed to the surface almost simultaneously and detached from their rails with a great metallic clattering, stomping forward to collect umbilical jacks and connect to the power mains. Rei dutifully collected the two part particle rifle assembly and began sticking it together, while Shinji picked up his palette rifle, loaded a magazine, and stuck a spare in his shoulder mount. Asuka picked up and checked her rifle, but also picked up the experimental progressive spear, testing its weight in Unit Two's left hand.

"Asuka," said Ritsuko. "I didn't tell you to close with it."

"I want to be prepared," the girl snapped.

Rei broke off from the formation and carried her long gun away from Unit One and Unit Two, stomping further up the beach to set up atop an inundated building, testing it with the Eva's hand before setting up a rifle rest on it. Shinji and Asuka took turns standing still and moving, covering each other. The angel didn't seem to register them as it awkwardly stepped up onto the beach, tracking towards the city. Both Evangelions slowed, and Shinji raised his rifle to his shoulder, keeping the muzzle down, and Asuka tightened up her grip on hers, shoving the bullpup stock under her Unit's shoulder to keep it balanced while she choked down on the spear.

"It's not reacting," Asuka noted.

"Shinji, fire a burst at it," said Ritsuko.

Shinji nodded, tightened his stance, and fired. Three quick thumps sent the massive shells flying downrange, so slow they were almost visible, and they exploded harmlessly against the creature's AT-Field.

"It's immune to small arms fire," said Asuka.

"We don't know that. Rei, prepare to-"

Asuka dropped her rifle, took the spear in both hands, and charged, holding it out in front of her, couched in her arms like a lance. Unit Two crossed the beach and breakneck speed, great clumps of sand and splashes of seawater flying up behind her heels. Shinji yelped and followed, pulling his rifle across his chest as Unit One struggled to catch up on Asuka's lead. Her eyes had a feral gleam in them and she grinned, leaning into the spear strike.

The angel simply ignored her, for the most part, even when she ran straight into it and rammed her spear into its body. It twitched at the last moment, and the progressive blade at the spear's tip sparked against its core. It made a lilting sound, a bird-like cry, as Asuka stepped it into it, twisted at her hips, and shoved the spear into the thing's body up to her fist. She cried out and reared back, drawing the shaft of the spear up through the angel's body. It split cleanly, without any sort of indication of a wound, its doughy body neatly bisected. Asuka stepped back.

"I have defeated it," Asuka announced. "I will want to paint a kill mark on my armor."

"Asuka," Shinji said breathlessly, "Wait, get back!"

The angel's split form moved. A new set of arms reached out from inside of it, pressing against one another's palms, and with a great ripping sound it pressed itself into two one-legged pieces that quickly slid out second legs and stood a little shorter in front of Unit Two. They raised their long claws menacingly and Asuka danced back, holding into the spear. She shifted it to her right hand, reached up, and pulled her prog knife.

"Try shooting it again," Said Ritsuko.

"Very helpful." Asuka said dryly.

Shinji moved up as Asuka fell back, well within range to erode the angel's AT-Field, raised the palette rifle, and fired a quick burst point-black into the core of the leftmost creature. It stopped moving, slumping, and its compatriot charged, pounding along the surf. It went for Unit Two, impaling itself on Asuka's spear. It used its body to torque it out of her hand. She danced back, tossing her progressive knife from hand to hand, and crouched.

"Come on," she snarled, "Come get me."

She danced back from a swipe of the creature's claws, bending backwards at the waist, then dropped to her side and rolled to avoid a downward slash. The angel followed her, striking at her clumsily until it made a thrusting stroke with its extended claws and she grabbed the creature's arm, turned to lock the joint, and turned the blade in her hand so that it pointed from the heel of her fist, and slashed back into the creature. Its arm came free, trailing sticky strands of black ichor behind it as she pulled it loose. It moved free of her, putting a distance between them, and she charged after it, grinning.

"I cannot take a clear shot," Rei said quietly.

"Asuka, Shinji," said Ritsuko. "Try to open up Rei's field of fire."

"Why bother?" Asuka demanded. "I almost have it!"

"Uh," said Shinji.

The second half of the creature recovered from his fire, stood up, and divided again, splitting down its trunk, opening up a now third core as it broke into a slightly smaller pair, perhaps a head shorter than Unit One. Both charged, making odd, almost chirping sounds, and grabbed both of his arms and slammed Shinji to the earth, digging a long furrow in the sand.

Asuka turned. "Shinji!"

"Asuka," said Ritsuko, "Look out!"

As Asuka turned and ran to Shinji, the third segment of the angel calmly picked up its severed arm, jammed it back onto the stump, and flexed it, working its clawed talons in sequence as it connected itself back into its body. It followed her as she charged towards Shinji, pulling a second progressive knife, and raised them. She took a small leap and pushed the two creatures back, thrusting at their cores with either hand and missing. In reply, both grabbed onto her arms and pulled her across Unit One's prone form. The two Evas showered sparks onto the sands as their armors crossed one another, grinding the enamel away.

Behind them, the third segment of the angel stopped, bubbled, and divided in half, the two segments pulling apart, then sprouting proper arms and legs before advancing. Shinji stood up, pulled his prog knife, and took a lazy swing at them, but missed and was soon entrapped. The angel holding his arm twisted, and with a great cracking sound the arm gave, and he screamed, bubbling the LCL in front of his face, grasping at his twisting arm, wracked by phantom pain.

"Get _off!"_ Asuka snarled, twisting loose from her attackers.

"This is a disaster," Fuytusuki said quietly.

One unit of the angel kicked Shinji to his knees, while another worked its way around the back of the Eva and began sharply yanking on the massive jack for the umblical, wrenching Unit One's entire form around as it tried to work its talons under the joint. It gave up on that and began furiously yanking and pulling on the braided cable itself, trying to snap it. It began to fray, the heavy layers of insulation shredding into long, fuzzy streamers, revealing the entwined, shining cable beneath.

"Asuka," said Ritsuko, "Get him out and pull back. We can't fight it if it keeps dividing."

Unsatisfied, the other section of the angel charged at Shinji's front, pulled Unit One's ruined arm out of the way, prompting more screams from Shinji, and without ceremony pried off Unit One's chest armor, exposing the core within. Ritsuko tensed, her mouth dropping open.

"I… oh God…"

"Remain calm," Fuyutsuki said quietly. "Pilots, can you hear me?"

"I'm a little busy," said Asuka.

Shinji didn't reply. He was too busy screaming.

"Rei," said Fuyutsuki. "You will fire a shot into the creature attacking Unit One's umbilical. Do it now."

"Roger," said Rei, and then lined up her rifle and fired.

The shot of charged particles grazed Unit One's head armor, burning a streak across the surface, and punched through the angel at his back, sending it stumbling backwards. It barely missed Unit Two and clipped one of the ones attacking her, freeing her arm. She turned the blade in her hand and cut the other one free, and then charged to Shinji's position.

"Asuka," said Fuyutsuki. "Listen very carefully. I want you to raise your AT field to maximum. Don't attack, just cover Shinji and keep your AT-Field up. Do you understand?"

"But I-"

"Young lady," Fuyutsuki said, his voice cool. "Do as I say."

Asuka made no reply, but pulled Shinji free from the angel's grip, kicked it away, and pulled Unit One closer to Unit Two's chest, covering the core with her forearms. The angel Rei hit began to bubble and was on the verge of splitting.

"Mister Aoba," said Fuyutsuki. "Order an N2 sortie from asset K-5, please."

Aoba looked over his shoulder in horror, then turned to his panel and began typing in the commands. He sat back from his console.

"Inbound. Fifteen seconds."

"Rei," said Fuyutsuki. "Take cover. Asuka, keep your field fully charged."

Ritsuko ran up to his side, breathing sharply. "I don't know if her field will hold," she said softly into his ear.

"It will," Fuyutsuki said, folding his hands behind his back.

The screen when bright white, and then resolved to static. The bridge went wild, and Fuyutsuki sucked in a slow breath. Ritsuko ran down and took up Maya's station, checking the monitoring feeds from the Evas. Asuka was still synched, but Shinji was unconscious. Rei had redirected the brunt of the blast with her own field, and was standing up to walk towards the other pilots.

"We still have a blue pattern," said Aoba.

"Shit," Ritsuko muttered.

The screen came back up, the image rolling and covered with static. Unit Two tromped forward grimly, great sections of armor melted and scorched. Unit One rested in Asuka's arms, carried like a newlywed across the threshold. Behind her, the mushroom cloud from the air burst rose slowly up into the sky, darkening the midday sun. Her face reappeared on the screen, her jaw set, her eyes narrowed.

"I have him," she said quietly. "Is it dead?"

Aoba sat up and sucked in a sharp breath. "Eighty percent of the angel's mass has been eliminated, but the cores are still intact. It's combined into a singular globular mass. It's put up the strongest AT-Field yet."

"Great," Asuka snapped. "Shinji doesn't answer me."

Ritsuko blinked. There was more than a note of concern in her voice.

"His vitals are all stable, but he's lost synch. The brainwave scan shows he's unconscious. He might have a concussion, but I doubt it. We're sending the recovery crew out now."

* * *

><p>Mari had a problem. The Earth was getting very big, very fast, and the contents of her stomach wanted out, now. When the emergency stabilization system engaged and corkscrewed her armored body in a rapid spiral as she leveled out, it didn't help matters. She swallowed, hard enough that it hurt, and rolled onto her back, thrusting with the hand repulsors to stabilizer herself. The display superimposed on her faceplate was going crazy.<p>

"What the hell was that?"

"Energy signature readings suggest a high yield non nuclear device, possibly antimatter, equivalent to a large fission bomb," Jarvis said helpfully.

"Is the thingy dead?"

"The thingy is apparently alive," said Jarvis. "I have successfully tapped Nerv's communications channels and I have access to gamma level enrcrypted materials, mostly the lowest levels of classified materials. Nothing exceptional."

"Hmm," Mari said as she landed. She took a few steps along the sand, feeling it crunch under her heavy, booted feet.

"Is there any kind of pattern in the chatter?"

"Most of the activity is concentrated here," said Jarvis. "So far as I can see, Nerv has three large mainframe systems, located under Tokyo-3, in western China, and in Latveria."

"Wait," said Mari. "Hold up, I thought Nerv was purely an East Asian organization?"

"That is how they present themselves publicly, yes."

"Cross reference the Latveria thing. I want a look around."

In the distance, the mushroom cloud was still rising, like a diseased tree out of the sea, the inside of the cloud still hot. She could see the lanky humanoid shapes of the Evangelions moving, two of them with one carrying the third. In the distance, craft were headed in, silhouetted against the dust-reddened sky.

"Those things are too huge," Mari mused. "They don't even notice me."

"Indeed," said Jarvis.

"Give me a tac assessment. What would happen if I had to take one of them down?"

"In the Mark Ten armor?"

"Yes."

"Tactical assessment… Run."

"Very funny," said Mari. "Anything yet?"

"Processing," said Jarvis. "The encryption on the Chinese mainframe appears to be the weakest. I believe I could break these codes within a few hours."

"Get started on it, but keep up with the cross-referencing on Latveria."

She took a few more steps down the sand, plodding along in the suit. Despite being hit with a vastly powerful weapon, the still-glowing husk of the angel was mountainous, unconquered. It had taken on the appearance of a conglomeration of limbs and torsos, warped and melted together around a glowing red sphere. A readout appeared on her screen helpfully showing that the red object was producing truly herculean amounts of energy, even by miniaturized arc reactor standards. The sky was as red as sunset, despite being barely past noon, from all the dust the explosion threw up. Mari was tempted to tap her foot. Was Jarvis hesitating? That wasn't possible.

"Well?"

"I have identified several movements between Tokyo-3 and Doomstadt," said Jarvis. "The most obvious is that of Asuka von Doom, via the United States. A second individual has moved between the two locales several times, and made stops in China and California."

"California? Who?"

Silence.

"Jarvis?"

"Ryoji Kaji."

Her fists clenched, and the armor gauntlets clinked together around them. She heard a sharp clicking sound, and was about to ask Jarvis if the suit had been damaged in the explosion when she realized it was her own teeth pressing on themselves. The suit quivered with her movements, making soft whirring sounds. Finally, she steadied herself.

"Jarvis," Mari said calmly. "The tracker. Where is he now? Do you have his location?"

"Yes, Miss Mari."

"_Maximum burn."_

* * *

><p>Kaji had just slipped into the driver's seat of his Lotus when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He slipped it out, checked the number, and placed it to his ear.<p>

"Ritsuko?"

"Kaji," the scientist said quietly, "I need your help. It's Misato. Her apartment. _Get here._"

He considered the phone for a moment, then shoved it in his pocket, turned the engine over, and threw the car into gear. He felt a little bit of lean in the turns around the parking garage, and winced at the light when he pulled out onto the surface streets. The city was still mostly empty, on a strange provisional lockdown until the angel was assessed, and he jammed the accelerator up the street, taking the corners hard. At least there were no dinosaurs this time.

He pulled into the lot. It was conspicuously empty, especially of Misato's blue Renault. The only car was a small hatchback that looked thoroughly boring. He entered the security code at the door, forgetting he was going to have to explain it later, and ran up the stairs. The door was already open when he got there, and Maya Ibuki was standing in the door. She looked afright- her hair was disheveled, and there was something on her uniform jacket. She was shaking.

"M-Mister Kaji?"

He almost had to force his way into the apartment. Misato was sitting on her couch in the middle of her living room, curled into a ball. She was in her uniform, but the jacket was undone and she'd lost her shoes at some point. She had her knees pulled up into her chest and was staring blankly at the wall, rocking gently. Ritsuko had an arm around her, trying to steady her, and was whispering softly.

He went a little slack. The room felt crowded. He looked at Ritsuko, who looked past him, at Maya.

"What happened?"

Ritsuko nodded at Maya and he backed away with her, into the entry hall. The girl fished around in her uniform for a second and pulled out a creased sheet of paper. He took it, unfolded it, and sucked in a breath. The image of the creature was clear as a bell and matched the description he'd heard repeated verbatim after a dozen nightmares. He crumpled it in his hand and gave it back to her, shuddering as the recollection of Misato shaking him awake and warning him that the creature was in their apartment, reassuring her that the doctors were right and it wasn't real.

He'd been lying to her, of course. Not consciously, but he realized later when he joined the international informal fraternity of supervillains that Venom was both real and not what he, or it, seemed. Roderick Kingsley's files had detailed information on all of his contemporaries, one Eddie Brock, aka Venom, included, along with a detailed dossier on the parasitic alien that gave him his powers. The symbiote was active in Tokyo-3, and it could be anyone- as far as Kaji knew, Brock was dead; word had come down that he'd passed from cancer after Second Impact; he died in an American prison. He'd been separated from the symbiote years before.

"Get rid of that," he said, quietly.

Maya nodded and he made his way into the room. Ritsuko let go of Misato and slid to the others side of the couch. Misato made no sound, but when he put his arm around her, her darting eyes flicked to him and focused. He sat in silence for a while, rocking with her, until she sucked in a deep breath.

"It's real," she whispered, "they _lied_ to me."

He nodded and put both arms around her. She leaned into his chest and sobbed, hard, like a little girl, and he clenched his jaw. She had to be really shaken up to regress this way, and it bothered him.

"You can't let it beat you like this."

"It killed my father, and now it wants me. It came back for me."

"Misato," said Ritsuko. "We need your help. There was an angel attack."

Misato looked at her blankly.

"We need you back. It's gone dormant, but we don't have much time. Days, maybe hours. We need a plan. I can't do this, I'm not a military officer."

"Misato," said Ritsuko. "Please."

"It came back for me." Misato repeated, rocking.

"Misato, listen to me," Kaji ran his fingers through her hair. "I know you're scared. I know what that thing did, and what it can do. It's very powerful, but it's not invincible. It's been beaten before. You need to face it, to stop it, or this is going to haunt you forever, but before you can do that, we need you at Nerv or everyone is going to die."

She looked up at him and blinked.

Slowly, she uncurled, and put her feet on her floor. She sat for a time with her hands under her armpits, staring at her knees, until she shuddered in a deep breath and slowly stood up.

"You're right," she said. "I need to get cleaned up. We have work to do."

"See," said Kaji, "I-"

"This doesn't change anything," said Misato. "You still left me."

"I know," Kaji shrugged, slipping into his sloppy grin. "One day, you'll-"

"Shut up," Ritsuko growled, "and get out."

He sighed. Women. He stood up, brushed off his shirt, and strolled out of the apartment, nodding to Ibuki, who regarded him with a blatantly obvious suspicion. He let the door slide closed behind and blew out a long breath. It was better not to let them raise too many questions, say, about where he was getting his information. The bounce in his step was entirely feigned as he trotted down the stairs to the parking lot and sauntered to his car, looking in three directions at once. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and as he pulled out of the parking lot, he fished out a gas bomb and his rebreather and tossed them on the seat beside him.

As he made the first turn, an eight foot tall metal monstrosity slammed into the hood of his car. He bucked forward, tight against the seat belt, and the car went wild under him, spinning in a tight circle that swirled his vision and forced his light lunch up against the top of his throat. He coughed and bit it back down as the armored giant peeled back the hood of his car, his _freakin' car_, and popped off a whining repulsor blast right into his engine, sending a spray of oil and mechanical guts all over his hood. The armored figure then stomped over to the driver's side, pulled the door off and tossed it down the street, and for good measure, tore the ragtop off by the roots and crumpled it into a black ball of fabric and wiry struts.

He stared up in shock at the Iron Man Mark X armor. A number of dossiers from Kingsley's files swirled in his head and condensed into the overwhelming sense that he was a dead man.

The helmet clanged open, revealing the tear-streaked visage of Mari Stark, sans glasses. Her mechanical gauntlet closed around his collar and hauled him up out of the seat, so his toes scraped against the asphalt.

"We need to talk," she said thickly.

* * *

><p>Mari thrust her hand out, and if Jarvis didn't refuse the command with an insistent don't-do-that-beep, she would have blown Kaji's head off his shoulders. The man was sitting in the ruins of his stupid little male chauvinist pig toy car and staring up at her with an entirely appropriate level of fear, holding his hands out in front of himself as if that would stop a repulsor blast. Mari clenched her teeth.<p>

"Are you the Hobgoblin, or not?"

"Yes," Kaji said, and then quickly added, "Please, let me explain! I was just there to steal-"

"That isn't much of an explanation," Mari loomed more closely over him.

"Listen, please! They set me up! You weren't supposed to be home! I was going to be in and out in five minutes! They handed me the access codes, and-"

"_What?"_

"The codes, they-"

"Who? They who?"

He swallowed and shook his head. "You don't-"

Mari pressed the hot repulsor closer to his face. He gazed into the blazing white circle and leaned back, wincing.

"Ikari! It was Ikari, the Commander, look, I-"

"Where is the arc reactor now? The one you took?"

"I don't know, I-"

Mari leaned back and nodded, and in response, the helmet closed around her, opening up the interface in front of her eyes. Her vision was still a little blurred, and she blinked the tears away until she could see clearly.

"Silent mode."

Let him stew. Kaji stared at her now silent metallic visage, shaking. He was slowly reaching for a small explosive device lying on the seat of the car. She casually snapped it away with a low power repulsor shot, and he clamped his hand to his chest in fear.

"Jarvis," said Mari. "The transactions you showed me before, the ones we got from Rhodey."

"Yes, Miss Mari?"

"Analyze them. Anything indicate some kind of a pattern, maybe this clown and Wilson were hired separately?"

"The funding for the _arrangements _for Mister Wilson's fee originated at the Chinese branch, it seems," said Jarvis, "although large sums of money move through that part of the organization, as-"

"Quiet," she snapped.

The helmet popped open.

"What do you know about Nerv China?"

Kaji paled. "Don't go there. Don't have anything to do with it."

"What? Why not?"

"I've heard bad things about it. Ikari may be a slave driver, but at least he's stable. Nerv China has a bad reputation everywhere in the organization. I hear things."

She leaned closer to him. "What things?"

"They're building more Evas there, for one thing. A lot more. A whole army of the damned things, from what I hear."

"How many?"

"I don't know-"

"Yes you do, how many?"

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "I'm not supposed to know this. I could be killed."

"Good point," said Mari, leaning on the car. It creaked under the suit's weight.

Kaji shook his head. "Fifteen. Fifteen of them. New design, not like the other ones. I have some data but I've never looked at it, I just pass it on to my other contacts."

"In Latveria?" Mari said coldly.

"Yeah," said Kaji. "Look, I-"

"Save it," she said. "I've got work to do. See you around, Cassanova."

She let the helmet clamp shut over her face, turned, and stomped just far enough away that he'd catch a little of the back wash without being hurt as she took off. The ground yawed and leaned away beneath her as she turned and headed toward her house outside the city.

"Jarvis, what do you know about the Chinese installation?"

"It will be highly secured," said Jarvis, "and the alleged possession of access codes to the Redding house suggests some foreknowledge of our capabilities. I suggest you contact SHIELD and-"

"And what? Turn everything over to them? You're telling me they don't know? We're on our own, Jarvis. It's just you and me. I am going to the China facility, and that's that. I have to know if they've corrupted my father's legacy. This is important."

"You will need the Mark Eight stealth package," said Jarvis. "I will begin preparing it."

"Damn right," said Mari. "We're leaving as soon as it's ready."

* * *

><p>Hikari was in a hurry to stretch her legs when the damned alert ended, and so eagerly jumped to her feet and headed to the front of the line to get out of the shelter. She felt a little light on her feet. Sure, Asuka was all over Shinji, but there were other fish in the sea, and as soon as she had a pleasant thought she realized it was a mistake as a lance of white-hot pain slammed into the back of her neck, the sensation of something crawling over her skin giving way to pain as he danger sense went insane, projecting threats from every direction. As the class rep walked to the shelter door to begin the process of checking the students off, the door opened behind her and two jack booted thugs in black uniforms and helmets with heavy shields over their faces stomped in.<p>

The two guards flanked a girl not much older than Hikari, slight and wiry and dressed in a black bodysuit, her close-cropped auburn hair shining. She sniffed their air and nodded to the two guards, who stepped into the room and were followed by two more. In their hands were heavy guns of a design that Hikari had never seen before. They were fed from a large magazine slung under the barrel, but also had a canister jutting out from the side, full of some kind of gas.

The girl nodded, and the guards started shooting.

The projectiles were painfully slow. The world slid by slowly as Hikari's nerves outpaced it, and she jumped from where she stood, kicked off her shoes, and planted her palms and the balls of her feet on the ceiling in one fluid motion. A pair of heavy darts slid under her, passing through the space where she stood only the barest instant before, and thunked solidly into Kensuke's chest. His eyes rolled back in his head and he toppled backwards under the momentum.

She kicked down from the ceiling and hit the girl with the buzz cut, hard. It was like hitting a brick wall. They rolled together, and when the girl hit the concerete floor of the shelter entrance, it sounded like a bad of cement being dropped. She rolled Hikari off her, snarled, and when she was on her feet, flicked her arms out. From her fists erupted twin pairs of razor-thin metal, dull grey and wickedly sharp looking. Hikari's danger sense buzzed again and she backed away as the girl hissed at her, hunched like an animal.

Toji body checked her into the wall. Darts bounced off of him, the sharp points tearing little runnels in his track suit, some sticking in the fabric and hanging off him. Blade-girl slammed into the wall so hard it left a crack in it, and turned back to Toji, taking a clumsy swipe with her claws that he dodged just barely, moving out of pure instinct. There was a livid bruise and a long cut on her forehead, and Hikari could swear she glimpsed shining metal in the very center of the opening in the girl's skin.

The wound knit itself closed in seconds, and the bruise faded, and in less than thirty seconds, it was as if it had never been there. Hikari blinked and dodged another fusillade of darts , rolling over them as they passed under her body, whispering against her uniform skirt. She continued the motion into a high kick as she landed, putting the heel of her foot right into the helmet of the black-clad man nearest her. His gun clattered to the floor, and he tugged at his helmet, and finally yanked it free.

He wasn't a man.

His skin was a sallow color, scaly, and he had a lipless mouth filled with needly teeth. It took Hikari a moment of confused processing to realize she was staring at a dinosaur man, and in that moment she nearly lost her head. She dodged blade-girl's claws so barely that it took off a lock of her hair, and it whispered to the floor at her feet. She continued ducking, cartwheeled, and put both heels in blade-girl's belly, sending her stumbling backwards against Toji, who grabbed her arms, rolled her, and turned her against the wall, pressing her face-first into it.

"Get everybody out!" Toji called, "I'll hold her here!"

Hikari barely ducked a whistling canister as big as her fist that swept by her head, spewing gas. She coughed at it, and the world tilted lazily and flashed with tiny, shining spots and the outlines of veins. She felt a sudden tiredness, and watched the canister skid and spin to a stop in the hall. Toji sucked in a breath of it, coughed, and slid off of blade-girl. Hikari grabbed him, pulled him up onto her shoulder, and ran, shoving one of the lizard men aside with her fee hand. When she was out in the hall, she saw more of them aiming dart guns at her.

She murmured "Sorry," to Toji, then turned and let them skim off his back and ran for the exit. He started coming around, throwing her sharply off balance, and it took all her concentration and strength to keep her feet under her as she ran. She let him slide down until she was clutching him against her body with one arm and bolted all out for the city, jogging on the balls of her feet faster than an athlete could pedal a bike.

"Put me down!" Toji coughed out.

She ducked into an alleyway and helped him to his feet. He stumbled a little and leaned against the wall, panting.

"Friggin' gas," he snapped, "What the hell did you do that for? We left everybody!"

"We couldn't fight them like that," Hikari panted, "Use your head, damn it."

She slumped against the wall and took a deep breath. Her gaze was clearing, and she felt a little stronger, enough that she could stand even though the adrenaline rush had faded.

"What do we do now?"

"My family isn't far. We find them, we find your dad and your sister, we get them somewhere safe-"

"Why? What's going on?"

"It has something to do with the school," said Hikari. "Us, the students. They came for us, those darts and the gas are to put everybody to sleep."

"Something to do with the pilots, maybe?"

She shrugged, "Or maybe… you have powers. I have powers. I think Kensuke has powers. Shinji has powers. I bet Asuka does, too, and Rei is… Rei does, too."

"You think… you think everybody in the class is like us? We're all…"

The word hung in the air.

"Mutants," said Hikari, "and they're rounding us up. Come on, let's go."

* * *

><p>Mari broke the sound barrier approximately nine minutes after donning the Mark Eight Armor, a slimmed down, black-hued variant of the Mark V Rapid Response version. The stealth armor was designed to penetrate hostile defense grids- it was less a suit of armor and more a mobile electronic warfare suite, meant not so much to avoid radar- an Iron Man suit's tiny cross section did most of the work there- but to remain invisible to other tracking systems. There were even weird symbols etched on the inside of the some of the armor panels, though Jarvis couldn't explain what they did.<p>

Flying in the stealth suit was an entirely different experience. The combination of armor and undersuit was a lot thinner, such that she felt like she was truly wearing it rather than simply riding inside it, and it was quicker, more maneuverable, and required finer control. In the upper reaches of the atmosphere, she would reach her target in a few hours. The world was laid out beneath her, gently curving into the distance, overlaid with markers and data on Jarvis' display. She could actually see the night in the distance, she was so high up.

Nerv China was spreading out below her, far more vast and industrial than Tokyo-3, and vastly less pretty. Where the bulk of the Japanese installation was below ground, this one was on the surface, and moved across the flattened ground like an open sore. She started moving in, cutting back on the speed as she began to descend towards it, feeling the rapidly thickening air pummeling the exterior of the suit, perilously close to her skin.

A red blip appeared in her peripheral vision.

"Miss Mari," Jarvis said insistently, "We must turn back. I have missile lock!"

"What?"

She glanced over her shoulder as she rolled, pulling a contrail behind her. There was a missile riding a column of smoke headed for her, trailing in from a distant speck that the heads up display labeled as an F-22 Raptor. She turned, rolled, and went into a dive, kicking down on the repulsors to put on more speed at the same time.

"Flares!"

Compartments on her hips slid open and dropped the flares and chaff, which spread out in every direction while she turned away, banking so hard it made her teeth hurt. She felt the explosion before she heard it as the missile took the bait and burst into a flaring flower, like a huge firework. She turned back towards the oncoming plane and put on all the speed she could muster.

"What are you doing?" Jarvis demanded.

"Taking him out," Mari said angrily. "I'll give him time to eject."

"We're going home," said Jarvis, his voice shifting.

"What? No! Be quiet!"

A familiar voice broke in on her comm channel. A wave of dread rushed through her and congealed in her stomach, freezing to ice.

"Hey sugarbuns," said Deadpool, "Like my new jet?"

"Mari, we're leaving," Jarvis insisted again.

"Manual mode," Mari snapped, "Cancel all preferences and lock in manual control."

Jarvis went as she went in. She was gritting her teeth and fuming, her breath fogging the display. The jet was close, so close she could smell it, and she was going to see if Wilson was so indestructible after all. She was so intent that she didn't see the other radar blip show up on her hud, or notice the incoming missile. It came up on her fast, and in a pure, blind panic, she turned, and it just barely skimmed by. She hoped, for a moment, that it would circle around and hit Wilson's jet. It didn't. It went off.

The world became suddenly heavier, and swirled. Blackness came up from the depths and took her, and the last thing she heard was her father's voice.

"Hold on, baby girl," he whispered, "Daddy's coming."

* * *

><p>Redding, California<p>

In the darkened halls of Tony Stark's mansion, Jarvis spoke, his voice everywhere and nowhere.

"Thanatos Imperative initiated. Option Three exercised. Jarvis program shutting down."

From every wall and crevice and piece of furniture a sudden swarm of hiply designed white pods emerged, skitting and floating down to the main elevator into the laboratory and workshop. Deep in the lab, the mainframe thrummed, and the lights came up as the elevator slid down into place and spilled forth the drones. A half dozen of them gathered around a rather primitive and crude looking robot that had once been a bomb disposal unit was prodded by the others, but didn't move. Only when a familiar voice boomed through the speakers all around it did it whir to life and begin rolling across the floor.

"Dummy! Wake up! We've got work to do!"

The machine emitted a low whine, and to hear it, you would have thought it was happy to hear its master's voice again.

* * *

><p>Misato was finally ready, and Ritsuko was itching to get her back to the base and get to work on a plan to defeat the angel's recombinant form, now more than ever. A small part of her knew that it meant eventually getting home, and getting the damned harness off. She was almost at the door when it caved in and was yanked roughly outwards. Without a word, Misato grabbed her and Maya by the shoulder, pulled them into the apartment, and pulled her sidearm from under her jacket.<p>

"Maya," she snapped, "there's another sidearm in my bedroom, under the dresser. Go get it!"

A half dozen burly men all in black with face masks ran into the apartment, and Misato didn't hesitate. She dropped into a practice, crouching shooting position and opened fire, triple-tapping the first intruder neatly. Green ichor sprayed out from the intruder's face plate, shattered by the bullet, and he, or it, toppled backwards. She slowly moved to her feet and continued firing, and Ritsuko realized that Maya was screaming and clutching the side of her head. Misato emptied her gun into the intruders, and in a practiced motion, dropped the magazine and slid a fresh one home, and led the slide go forward.

At that moment, Nathaniel Essex stepped into the apartment.

Ritsuko didn't know why she did what she did. She simply shoved Maya into one of the side bedrooms, and slid the door shut in front of her. The girl protested, but Ritsuko made a gesture of silence and stepped back. She stepped out behind Misato, wishing she actually carried her own gun, which lay locked in her drawer in her laboratory, unloaded. She swallowed hard as Essex walked to Misato.

He'd changed. He'd increased in size dramatically, both in height and in bulk, and dropped the façade; he looked like a straight up vampire from a cheesy movie, chalk-white skin and widow's peak and all. His eyes had turned bright red, and there was a gem of the same color set in his forehead. He's eschewed his rather plain clothing and labcoat for some sort of banded, overlapping armor. Misato kept her gun trained on him anyway.

"This doesn't have to be violent."

In reply, Misato emptied her gun into him. He flinched a little as she put every round into his chest until the magazine was empty, and then looked down at the open, bloodless wounds, like some sort of white clay. They slowly slid closed with a foul sucking sound, and the banded armor closed over top of them. Essex smirked, took two steps with astonishing speed, and picked Misato up by the neck and threw her through the sliding door into the room where Ritsuko had hidden Maya.

Ritsuko took a step back as he approached her, and then another, and another, until her back was to the wall. She winced as he grabbed her labcoat and pulled, splitting the fabric easily. He held her against the wall with one hand around her throat and undid the harness until her wings spilled out.

"So beautiful," he said, "No need to hide them. You'll be coming with me."

Then, he slapped a metal collar around her throat and led her out of the apartment by the scruff of her neck.

* * *

><p>"This isn't happening," Kodama repeated, over and over and over, and Hikari had to keep herself from gritting her teeth.<p>

"It is happening," said Hikari. "We need to deal with it."

They were a small group. Hikari and Kodama and Toji were standing around. Hikari's father sat next to Toji's dad, a thin, angular man who had the same sort of rugged good looks that Toji did, though softened somewhat by age. Nozomi and Kanna were laughing it up with each other in the corner of the room they'd broken into, the one that Hikari had picked because it seemed out of the way and she could just rip the door off with her bare hands and toss it aside.

Kodama was pacing in slow circles, clutching herself, fumbling absently at the collar of her dress. She looked at Hikari and then away from her, at the floor. Toji walked over to the wall and slid down into a seated position next to his father, who didn't look at him.

"We have to leave," Kodama said finally. "We have to get away. I don't care if you're a mutant, you're my sister, and-"

Hikari looked at her for a moment. She felt a weight on her shoulders, and wanted nothing more than to lie down and close her eyes. It was getting dark outside.

"No," she said softly.

"I am your eldest sister!" Kodama snapped, "When I tell you-"

"No," Hikari repeated. "There are other people like me and Toji, our friends, our neighbors, good people just like us. Somebody has to do something, Kodama."

"It doesn't have to be you!" she screamed, balling her fists at her side like a little girl.

Hikari thought she would start to cry, being screamed at like that, or shake, or scream back, or something, instead, she said very calmly, "Yes, it does."

"Why?" Kodama demanded, stomping over to her, still shaking. "Why you?"

"Because…" Hikari trailed off. Something clicked in her head, like an engine moving from an unsteady chug to a soft, smooth hum. It made perfect sense.

"Because with great power must also come great responsibility."

Toji looked up at her and blinked. Then, slowly, he stood up.

"I'm goin," he said to his dad.

"Thought you would," said the old man. "Good luck, boy. Do me proud."

"Hikari," Kodama pleaded, "Please."

Hikari swallowed. "I love you. I'll be back."

Together, they ran out into the fading sun.

* * *

><p>When the phone rang, Frank busted his head on the damned bunk bed, again. He snarled and shouted a dozen different profanities and finally picked up the incessantly ringing phone, only to hear Bert's mewling voice on the other side. He took a deep breath.<p>

"Calm down. What is it now?"

"It's gone!" Bert shouted, forcing Frank to pull the headset from his ear.

"What's… gone…" Frank trailed off.

He got up, he threw the phone down, and he ran down the corridor to the containment chamber, not bothering to close his robe. Bert and the other techs were standing in the testing chamber slack-jawed, looking at the empty containment unit and the massive hole in its ceiling. Frank stared, dumbstruck, at the stars through the opening, and then shook Bert out of his reverie, causing the other man to drop the headset of the telephone he still held in his hand.

"What the hell…"

"We've got it," said Bert. "It… It's in geosynchronous orbit over Japan."

Frank stared at him. "What?"

"It's just sitting there, in orbit. It's putting out the same energy signature as usual, but it's just… there. Like it's…"

"Waiting for something," Frank finished.

* * *

><p>Doomstadt, Latveria<p>

Rare was it that the contemplations of von Doom would be interrupted by his underlings. Tonight he ruminated over the tiniest of objects, a miniscule locket that all but vanished when held in the thick metallic fingers of his gauntlet. With a shocking deftness and dexterity considering the metal suit that encased his body, he clasped it shut and slid it into a hidden compartment in his glove as one of his ministers toadied into the room and fell to one knee behind him, lit by the light of the moon.

"My Lord," said the adjutant, "We have lost contact with Tokyo-3. Ikari does not respond, either through formal or informal channels."

"My agents?"

"Silent, my Lord, all of them."

"What news?"

"The last we heard, my Lord, there was an explosion at Matsushiro. Ikari was en route from the airfield there to meet with the Chairman and Schmidt at the Chinese facility prior to the Unit Four activation test…"

"The satellites?"

"Images show his plane destroyed, my Lord. He is either dead, or means us to think him so."

Doom considered this for a moment. "Bring all my assets to maximum alert levels. Prepare the flying wings, and mass the attack robots."

"But my Lord, it will be an act of war against the United Nations, and-"

"Then there will be war," Doom raged, rounding on him. "They will learn a new definition of the word. There are consequences for betrayal. I care not for their weapons or their numbers. Let them array themselves against me, and they will learn _**there is Doom enough for all!**_"

* * *

><p>Next time on <em>NGE: Valkyrie<em>

Mister Sinister's nefarious plan unfolds!

Doctor Doom invades Japan!

Venom strikes!

Israfel rises!

_Will the world survive?_


	12. In the Garden of Beasts

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Valkyrie

Chapter 12: In the Garden of Beasts

* * *

><p>The last thing Shinji remembered was a lancing pain in his back, flowing like liquid fire along his spine and into the base of his skull, and then an inky, crushing blackness. He puffed out a breath and sneezed and coughed a mouthful of sand onto the ground beneath him. He blinked his eyes and found himself staring into fine white sand, turned gray by darkness. The air around him was cool and still, and utterly stank of blood, the scent so strong it forced its way into his nostrils and clung to his tongue when he tried to breathe through his mouth. He rolled into a sitting position and looked around.<p>

The sky overhead was a deep, purple, the stars brilliant and dense against it, undisturbed by unnatural lighting. A band of reddish cloud swept overhead, and something about it startled him. He looked around and realized he was sitting along the coast, on a beach. He stood up and walked a few paces to the water's edge and touched it, scooping up a handful on his palm. The water was dense and heavy and sluiced through his fingers, and left a thin red film on the blue of his glove.

"No," he said softly. "This can't be right."

He felt a presence behind him, and whirled. Without conscious thought, a protective circle of scintillating energy, drawn from his pure will, flowed into being around him, and he drew the ambient energies into himself and through his body into his right hand, where they crackled into an almost-spell that formed a sphere of yellow light around his outstretched fingers. The three figure standing behind him on the beach didn't seem to feel especially threatened by his display.

"You are quick to anger," said the first yellow alien. "Perhaps you are not the one we seek."

There were three creatures with him on the beach. As he looked at them, he felt a strange sensation in his mind, as if he were only seeing part of them. He wasn't even sure he was looking at three distinct entities; they seemed to fuzz together and then apart together into three vaguely humanoid shapes, as if there were something greater behind and within them.

He lowered his hand, but maintained the circle. "Who are you?"

"You would not understand." Said the first alien.

"There will come a time when you are ready," said the second alien.

"That time is not today," said the third alien.

Shinji looked around. "Where am I? Is this the Astral Plane?"

"This is a point which contains all points," said the first alien.

"The eleventh dimension," said the second alien.

"The aleph," said the third alien.

"If this is a point that contains all points," said Shinji, "why does it look like a beach?"

"Your limited mind is not prepared to comprehend it," said the first alien.

"You are still limited to folding the fourth dimension through the third," said the second alien.

"You are an ant walking on a piece of paper," said the third alien.

"Is this the future? Where is this place?"

"This is what is," said the first alien.

"This is what will be," said the second alien.

"This is what may be," said the third alien.

The first alien stepped forward, to the edge of his circle, considered it for a moment, and then stepped over it. His defenses folded and he nearly collapsed from the shock of the energy surging back through him and into the aether. He shook his head and fought the sudden dizziness that came with it, leaning on his knees. The creature moved with no malice or violence. It simply pressed through his best defense without even the slightest effort.

It held out its hand, and when it unfolded its fingers, there was a walnut in it. Shinji stared at it for a moment, considered the alien, and then took it from its hand. He held the nut in his hands, turning it over and over. The alien stepped back, and the three aliens stepped aside. He saw behind them a path that ran up over a low dune in the sand, and slowly walked between them, still holding out the walnut. His feet slid in the sand a little. It felt real.

When he crested the low rise, he found himself in a graveyard. Crude markers had been erected, names scratched out of black chunks of debris by a childish hand writing by scraping away the surface to reveal the powdery concrete beneath. Nailed to one of the markers was a cross of white metal. He recognized it immediately as Misato's, and his eyes widened. He glimpsed two figures on the beach and started towards them, only to find himself fixed in place, one of the aliens resting a hand on his shoulder.

What he saw was himself, in his school uniform, but younger, middle school aged. Lying beside him in a damaged plugsuit was Asuka. She was covered in bandages and looked younger and slighter as well. He remembered that she was just a big younger than he was; if he was fourteen, here, she would have been thirteen, or just turned fourteen. He wasn't sure.

"The point that contains all points," he said to the air.

"Plant the seed," said the aliens.

He walked to the grave with the cross, to Misato's grave, and with his fingers parted the sand. He dug a small hole and slipped the walnut into it, and then covered it over and stood up. He took a few steps back, flanked by the yellow aliens. As he watched, a thin sapling sprouted from the ground and curled upwards around itself, green leaves unfolding from its tiny branches. It grew larger still, forcing the sand aside with its roots, until he was standing under its branches, outlined against the dark sky, leaves grasping at it like hands. He put his palms against the bark and it was warm, and when he drew closer to it, he could see that it was filled with points of light in endless numbers. He could almost feel himself sinking into it.

The aliens stood beside him. He glanced at them, and back at the tree. In one of the upper branches, the light was dying, and a terrible black ichor was spreading through the branch, seeping into the leaves until they choked and died and curled on themselves like dead spiders. Their stems snapped and the leaves began to fall, making soft crunching sounds as the hit the stand below.

"What's happening?"

"The adversary," said the first alien.

"The enemy is coming," said the second alien.

"There is something in the branes," said the third alien.

"What do I do?"

"You must preserve your continuity," said the first alien.

"You must be ready," said the second alien.

"You will be the one to lead the others," said the third alien.

"I don't understand," said Shinji. "What's a continuity? What do you mean?"

"Heed our warning," said the first alien.

"The knight of the mind holds the keys to your freedom," said the second alien.

"The knight in the tarnished armor is not what he seems," said the third alien.

"The greatest trials are yet to come," said the first alien.

"To follow the light you must walk in shadow," said the second alien.

"When the arm of God reaches down from the heavens, the hammer will fall," said the third alien.

Shinji turned from the aliens, and looked once more into the tree, and there he saw himself, but not himself, as in a mirror. He gasped and opened his eyes in truth, and beneath him there was a cold concrete floor. When he moved, he felt as if he was sweeping his limbs through water, and he felt the weight of a heavy collar on his neck and a bandage around his head. He grunted with the effort of rolling onto his back, and looked around. He was in a small cell with concrete walls, and there was a combined toilet and sink made of stainless steel at the far end. There would be barely enough room to stand. When he finally got to his feet, his thigh muscles burned in protest, and he had to lean on the wall. The collar around his neck felt like it wanted to drag him to the ground. He ran his fingers over it. It was made of smooth metal and a good two inches thick, clasped and locked at the back.

It would take a tiny whisper of effort to untwist it into a bar. He touched his fingers to it and closed his eyes.

"Shinji!"

Pain lanced through his body, and his vision went white. He stumbled backwards and slumped next to the toilet, trying not to scream. He had to fight to breathe for a moment, and clutched feebly at the collar.

"…don't." said Ritsuko.

He opened his eyes. Through the bars of his cell he could see her, curled against the back of her own cell, clutching herself. She, too, had a thick collar hanging from her neck, and her face was stained by runny makeup. At first, he thought she had some sort of blanket over her shoulders , but when she moved, he saw that she had a pair of wings, fluffy white feathers that almost shone even in the dim light. She swallowed, hard.

"That's right. I'm a mutant."

Shinji blinked.

"Is he awake?"

The voice came from the cell next door. Ritsuko nodded, and a hand in a red plugsuit plug appeared, stuck out through the bars. Shinji crawled to the edge of his cell, slipped his hand through the bars, and twined his fingers through Asuka's.

"I can't use my powers," she croaked. "It hurts if I try it."

"Same," said Shinji. "What's happening?"

"Your idiot father trusted that monster," Ritsuko croaked. "We're all going to die."

Asuka's grip tightened. "They took us while I slept. I couldn't stop them."

"It's okay… wait, us?"

"I was in your hospital room."

"Oh."

Why was he blushing?

"There's a way out," said Shinji. "We just have to think."

* * *

><p>Mari awoke with a start, and immediately winced. Handcuffs bit into her wrists, and made a small clattering sound as she pulled at them, dragging the steel against the wood of the chair to which she was bound. Someone had changed her out of her undersuit into a creamy white gown of silk that showed an embarrassing amount of décolletage. Without her glasses she had to squint to see the room properly. She was in a banquet hall; before her was an ornate table laid out with a full meal, centered on a pair of roasted pheasants. Her vision traced up to the other end of the table, where her <em>host<em> sat, dressed in an immaculate white suit. The somewhat dapper effect was ruined by the fact that his flesh was tightened against his skull and turned a nightmarish red, like a weeping sore.

"Isn't this a little cliché?"

The Red Skull nodded, and a white gloved attendant marched over to her, slapped her hard across the face, and returned to his position. He took a long fork and picked at a bowl of croutons.

"The formalities must be observed. You understand."

"As a feminist, I'm offended by the subtext of the dress."

"You will forgive me, fraulein. I have been accused of being trapped in the past."

"What do you want? Why haven't you just shot me already?"

The Skull touched his chest in mock offense. "You wound me. I am no barbarian, I assure you. Had you fallen into the clutches of the warlord who ran his little fiefdom here before I arrived, you'd have been tossed into a rape camp, and, had you survived, your throat cut and your defiled corpse thrown into a ditch. I think myself quite civil by comparison."

"You'd do the same or worse if you needed to."

"Perhaps," said the Skull, "but why question my methods? When Second Impact destroyed the world's coastlines and threw the global climate into chaos, did Reed Richards correct the axial tilt? Did Tony Stark use his machines to ease the labors of the poor? Did the world's breadbasket feed the hungry?"

"My father-"

"Like any good mercenary, profited from the world's distress. He and I are not so different, save that I am honest where your 'heroes' are liars. Can you reproach Doom for ending the strife in the Balkans, or myself for preventing the Chinese ultranationalists from launching their nuclear weapons against North America? While your so-called heroes sat and wrung their hands, we on the other side of the coin acted."

"You look like you're running a real charity here."

"Can I be forgiven for indulging a few small luxuries? My efforts keep the masses fed and further our preparations to stave off the apocalypse. You've seen the adversaries Nerv contends with. There is no secret doomsday weapon, no ulterior motive. I and my comrades live on this world, too."

"Bullshit," Mari said flatly.

"I see you also inherited your father's decorum. Very well, to the point. You are still alive chiefly because I require your expertise. You have a working knowledge of the function of the miniaturized arc reactor, do you not?"

Mari remained silent, but the effect was somewhat spoiled when she tried to cross her arms and yanked on the handcuffs again. She frowned.

"I see. You will provide me with the information voluntarily."

"If I don't?"

"If you'll give my reliance on cliché once again, we have ways of making you talk. Guards, take her to the cells."

Two men in jumpsuits appeared beside her, undid her handcuffs, and held her wrists while she stood up. Once she was out of the chair they forced her hands behind her back, cuffed her again, and put a black sack over her head. It made it difficult to breathe and impossible to see. A hand on either arm pulled on her and forced her to walk, barefoot, across the cold tile floor. She heard the Skull talking to someone, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

An elevator ride and a walk down a cold hallway later, one of the guards let go of her, and she heard his boots tapping on the floor as he walked off. The man leading her said something, and she heard a metal door sliding open. There were jeers and cat calls on either side of her as she walked down what had to be a prison block, finally stopping at her own cell. She was shoved inside, the hood pulled off, and the handcuffs removed. She rubbed at her wrists as she turned around to gaze under the bill of the guard's cap and into the face of Ryoki Kaji.

He palmed something and handed it to her. She snatched it from his hand. It looked like a boxer's mouth guard with a small cup that would cover her nose and mouth, and a pair of canisters, about the size of her thumb, jutting from either side.

"Put that on and get against the wall," said Kaji.

He stepped out of the cell, slid the bars shut behind him, and walked away, tugging the bill of his hat down over his face.

* * *

><p>Hikari motioned for Toji to stop and they both pressed themselves against the wall. In the distance, she could hear gunfire and smelled the acrid stink of smoke from dozens of fires that plumed up into the darkening sky. Slowly, she peered around the corner at the Geofront entrance. She'd never been to the Geofront before, and didn't know what to expect from the security checks. She felt a sudden queasiness when she spotted the guard house by the turnstiles, and noticed that the glass had been shattered and the inside was splashed with rusty dried blood. She pulled back around the corner.<p>

"Coast is clear," she said to Toji, "but somebody's already been here. It's bad."

Toji nodded, and together they moved into the open space, staying close to the wall. The entrance to the Geofront was large enough to accommodate the workforce of Nerv and the genetically altered crop farms that lined the cavern floor and small terraces along the edge, since almost no one actually lived down there, even big-wigs like Misato. When they reached the turnstiles, Hikari neatly hopped over them, then offered Toji a hand to sit on one of the columns and swing his legs over. He looked around nervously, and if it was possible to fidget while standing, he would have.

"Will you calm down?" said Hikari. "You're the one that's indestructible."

"Yeah," said Toji, "I was hoping no to have to test that theory."

Together, they walked down a wide but short flight of stairs into a lobby. It was a little weird, seeing it abandoned. Something bad had happened here. The round laminated tables had almost all been overturned, and there were scuff marks and signs of struggles on the floor. The place looked expensive, like an airport concourse, and there were little food businesses around the perimeter, now all empty. Big screens that probably played some sort of important messages all said PLEASE STAND BY. At the far end, there was a set of escalators, frozen and unmoving. They had to walk down, Toji with his head on a swivel. Hikari didn't feel any danger, but had the odd sense that she was being watched.

At the bottom of the escalators there was a subway tunnel that arched down into the Geofront proper. Hikari hopped down, careful of the third rail, and Toji jumped down beside her, dust kicking up around his feet. He went first into the tunnel, and they were soon swallowed by blackness. Hikari put her hands on his shoulders as they walked in the pitch blackness, footsteps echoing. She could hear him breathing harder, but her danger sense wasn't bothering her. It felt like they walked for an hour before they saw a sliver of silvery light up ahead, as welcome as the dawn on a winter night.

When they reached the lower platform and saw the assembled train cars there, Hikari felt a sudden buzz at the back of her neck and spun around, spreading her feet wide to leap or kick. Startled, Toji put his fists up. There was a low, almost sub-audible growl, and a freakin' sabertoothed tiger. Hikari's jaw dropped, and she watched the cat lazily circle them, head low, ears pressed back. To her surprise, the buzzing in her head faded to a low background itch and the tiger padded over to Toji, shoulder-checked him almost off his feet, and gently nuzzled his shoulder with it snout. The big fangs the size of steak knives somewhat ruined the effect.

"Uh," said Toji. "Hi?"

The cat looked at him with a curious intelligence in his eyes, smirked, and motioned with its head. A moment later, Rei appeared in a crouch atop one of the train cars. She had blood on her face that she'd tried to wipe away, mostly smearing it across her cheek and the arm of her white latex suit. It took Hikari a moment to realize that it wasn't hers, and her eyes seemed to be a much darker shade of red than usual. She neatly slipped off the roof of the car and bounced into a clean dismount on the ground, and then trotted over to Toji. There was a sort of clumsiness in her hug, like like she didn't know where to put her hands or rest her head until he embraced her back and guided her cheek onto his shoulder.

"What happened?" said Toji.

Rei looked around. "After Unit Zero was recovered, some creatures attempted to capture me. I dealt with them."

"Why are you out here?" said Hikari.

"I was attempting to escape. Spot came with me."

"You named the saber-toothed tiger _spot?"_

Rei's nose crinkled. "I thought that was an appropriate name for a pet."

"Well," said Hikari, "we were, uh, going in. To rescue everybody."

"I see," said Rei. "I had assumed I would be able to find help on the surface."

"I think we're it," Hikari said, and shrugged.

Toji looked around nervously. "We should get moving either way."

"Yes," said Rei. "Here, Spot."

The tiger gracefully walked over to her and knelt down, and it purred. The sound was a deep thrum that vibrated in Hikari's chest, and wasn't the least bit cute. Rei threw a leg over the big cat's back and motioned for Hikari and Toji to join her. Toji climbed up behind her and put his arms around her waist, and Hikari jumped on behind.

Rei looked over her shoulder. "I do not let just anyone ride my tiger."

Hikari blinked. Did Rei just make a joke?

* * *

><p>Mari put the mouthpiece of the rebreather in her mouth and bit down on it, covering her nose and mouth with the soft cup. When she bit down, there was a soft click and cool, metallic tasting air flooded into her mouth, almost forcing her to take a deep breath. It occurred to her, at that moment, that it could very well be a trap and Kaji meant to gas her with it, but by then, it was too late. She pressed herself against the wall and slid into the corner of the small cell, thought better of it, and pulled the thin mattress from the concrete slab of a bed, and covered herself with it. A moment later, two small, pumpkin-shaped objects rolled down the corridor outside, spraying a dense green gas. It made her eyes water when it wafted into her cell, and she heard coughing and the sound of bodies thumping on the floor. A moment later, the Hobgoblin appeared in front of her cell.<p>

Kaji must have had lifts in his boots, since he looked taller, broader, and heavier. The inside of his leathery, faux worm-eaten leather tunic must have been armored, as well. The mask he wore gave him a demonic cast, and it had a voice changer built into, obvious when he rasped at her.

"Get down."

She sank in between the bed and the toiler and cover her face as he jammed a handful of greyish goo against the lock on her cell door, stuck a small device in it, and jumped back, pulling his short half-cape over his face. The clay-lump sizzled for a moment, and then exploded with a bang and a flash. The lock section of the door thumped against the wall beside her, hard enough to chip the surface. She scowled at him as she stood up and cast the mattress off.

"Sorry about the mask," he snarled, "I had to give you my spare rebreather."

"Now what?" Mari said, and blinked. Her voice came out all warped and weird, too.

Kaji pulled a fuzzy undersuit from the satchel he wore around his shoulder and tossed it to her. She caught it, and blinked. It was the same neuroactive material she wore under her armor. Kaji shrugged.

"I picked it up from your place outside the city."

"How did you know where I was?"

"I'm not stupid," Kaji deadpanned, his voice like a hissing serpent. "Besides, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," Mari snapped.

"Your father called me and told me what to do and where to go, and where to get that. He said if I didn't get you out of here he'd see how far an arc reactor would go up my ass."

"What?" Mari said softly.

"I can't explain it either. Get changed, I brought that fold up suit with me. It's in the corridor outside."

Mari's eyes narrowed. "Turn around. And no peeking. As a matter of fact, just go around the corner."

Kaji sighed, the sound oddly warped by his voice changer, and stepped around the corner. Mari quickly shimmied out of the dress, which seemed to have been designed for quick removal in the first place, and tugged the suit on, jumping in place a little to get it up over her hips. One she zipped it up the back, Kaji stepped around the corner, holding the heavy red suitcase of the Mark V emergency suit. Mari almost yanked it out of his hand, dropped it on the ground, and began the elaborate process of unfolding it around herself, pushing down the kick plate to open the gauntlets.

Once it was unfolded, she just had to pick it up, pull the arms out and press the chest plate to herself, and the suit did the rest, clanking and click-clacking around her body. She took a deep breath and spat out the rebreather while Kaji retrieved an arc reactor from his satchel and shoved it into her chest, powering the suit up before it exhausted the reserve battery it used to articulate itself around her. The helmet clamped down over her face and began filtering her air.

"You better not have taken any more."

"With the killer iPods watching me?" Kaji rasped, "No thank you. If you'd listen to me before, I would have told you that I sabotaged the one I gave to Ikari."

Mari narrowed her eyes, and then remembered that her face was hidden. "What?"

"I'm a thief," Kaji shrugged, "I'm not crazy. You think I trust these lunatics? The Commander is dead, by the way."

"What? How?"

"Somebody must have planted a bomb on his plane," Kaji shrugged. "Blew up when I was leaving. The whole branch has gone silent."

Mari swallowed. "Um," she whispered, "Dad?"

"I'm not your father," the voice replied, though it sounded just like him. "I am, sort of, but it's not the same. I started copying my brainwave patterns into the Stark mainframes about a year ago, just in case. I was able to build up enough of a profile to take action in an emergency if you got in over your head."

Mari nodded, blinking the haze of tears out of her eyes.

Kaji looked around nervously. "The gas will wear off soon. We have to go, now."

"We're not leaving yet," said Mari. "I need some more answers, something. I can't let myself get this close and come out with nothing."

Mari stomped out of the cell into the hall, and looked around. The suit quickly overlaid infra-red over her vision, showing Kaji and the prone bodies of the other prisoners and guards through the thick green smoke. Kaji reluctantly followed her out, flexing his gloved fingers.

"I should leave," he muttered, "I must be out of my mind."

"Said the guy dressed up as a goblin," said Mari.

"Very funny."

She followed him up the prison block and to the heavy, barred door at the end. He'd already opened it and had it propped open with a boot. She didn't want to know where he got it. The door swung shut behind them with a thump and clicked closed, and Kaji moved up the hallway a bit and stopped before motioning her forward with his hand.

"You make a lot of noise," said Kaji. "Stay back until I'm sure we're clear. The surface is this way."

Mari looked down the other end of the corridor, running in the opposite direction. "Then what's down there?"

She started off in the opposite direction of the path to the surface, and Kaji followed, muttering to himself.

* * *

><p>Asuka sat in her cell, drumming her fingers against the cold, bare concrete floor. She was still in her plugsuit, and her hair was still thick with now drying LCL, which smelled even more like blood when it gummed up. It crusted the joints of the rigid sections of the suit around her shoulders and chest, and along the tops of the soles of her feet. She hated it, but most of all she hated the sudden sensation of cold. She had an academic awareness that other people were sensitive to temperature and she wasn't, but with her powers stripped away by the thing around her neck, that understanding translated into an uncomfortable reality that made her shift and fidget.<p>

Across from her, the cell was empty. Diagonal to her was the Akagi woman. Asuka wasn't shocked to learn she was a mutant, only that she had somehow hidden the scope of her deformity all this time. The older woman fidgeted and spent more effort trying to turn away her feathery wings than was warranted. Asuka was no fool; she quickly surmised the woman felt exposed, but didn't understand quite why. She itched at her neck and shimmied along the floor to the edge of the cell, and rested the palm of her hand on the floor outside.

It made her feel a little warmer when Shinji rested his gloved palm on her hand. She wished she could take off the glove and feel the touch of his skin. He closed his fingers around hers, and she pushed against the cold wall. She couldn't tell how long she'd been in the cell, here; she woke up after someone tossed a gas bomb into their room, and without knowing how the gas would react, she couldn't simply burn it away. She heard the clack-clanking of a heavy lock at the end of the corridor and quickly pulled back into her cell, and her throat caught a little when she saw Shinji do the same.

Essex and his girl assistant with the close-cropped red hair strode casually down the corridor. The look Akagi gave him could cut glass, but he favored her with a beatific smile, his tiny teeth like perfect pearls. Essex produced a key from within his ridiculous outfit, opened Shinji's cell with a rasping clatter of metal bars, and stepped inside. A moment later, he half-dragged the boy out, holding him by the metal collar around his neck so that only the balls of his feet touched the floor. Shinji futilely pulled at it and Essex's hand, which prompted an amused grin from the pale giant. He shoved Shinji at the girl, who caught him, spun him around roughly, and pinned his arm to his back. From her right hand she extruded a pair of claws and touched the sharp inner edges to Shinji's throat. A tiny trickle of blood formed on the surface and dribbled down the edge, then ran over the knuckles of her glove.

Asuka didn't realize she was gripping the bars of the cell door until Essex shoved her back with one meaty hand, opened the door, and stepped inside. She considered her options, weighed the tactical situation, and hauled off and kicked him hard in the crotch, turning her hip a little to add more force and concentrating the blow on her own shin, the knife-edge of her leg dulled to pain from constant training in martial arts. For all the reaction Essex gave, she could have been tickling him. He batted away her fists and grabbed her by the hair. She gave into the sharp pain in her scalp and went with him.

Essex held her while the girl nudged Shinji along. They passed down the cell block, which was empty save for the two pilots and the Akagi woman, to an elevator at the end, which stood open. Essex forced her inside after Shinji and the girl, and she caught a brief glimpse of the panel. The installation went far, far down. Essex, on the other hand, pushed a button for a higher floor, and the ride was short. The elevator doors opened onto another corridor, and he led them all to the end.

At the end of the corridor was a pair of heavy metal doors. Essex entered in a passcode into a panel beside the doors, and they slid smoothly open. Inside was a lab, with a medical air and a stink of detergent and rubber. He pushed Asuka inside, and she took a quick look around, grunting at the pain in her scalp. The room was dominated by a large tube flooded with some sort of clarified LCL, it looked like, in which was floating a thin young man with silvery hair. He looked vaguely like Ayanami, even though his eyes were pressed tightly shut. Opposite the tube was some sort of machine, obviously designed to hold a person, right down to wrist-straps and stirrups. Asuka shuddered.

Essex walked her up the short steps to the thing with the straps and spun her around so she could see Shinji. He looked from her to him.

"Listen carefully. I'm going to strap you down, and I'm going to remove your collar."

"Then I'm going to liquefy you," said Asuka.

"I highly doubt that. Unfortunately, this equipment is somewhat sensitive, so a great big fireball won't do. That's why you're going to cooperate with me, or Mana will decapitate your little boyfriend."

For emphasis, the girl pressed her blades a little closer to Shinji's skin, and he sucked in a breath, trying to stand even more still.

Asuka slumped. "I will do as you say."

"Good," said Essex. "I had hoped to avoid all of the inconvenient struggling."

She relaxed, and he released her, tentatively at first. He pushed her against the machine, which was something like a vertical examination table, and lifted one of her wrists over her head, and then the other, and bound them in place with thick leather straps. Burning through them would have been simple, without the collar. Her eyes opened a little wider as he bound her other wrist down. He was going to kill her. She could stop him, burn the places to ashes and melt the very steel of his devices into slag around him.

If she did that, Shinji would die.

"I do apologize for this," Essex went on as he knelt to fix her ankles into the stirrups. "You see, absent either a Super Solenoid or a very large, functional arc reactor, you are the only solution to my power problems. You see, you have the ability to generate a rather tremendous amount of energy. I think you could power an Eva on your own, given the circumstances."

Asuka greeted him with an icy silence.

"As such, once I finish attaching the leads to you, remove that collar, and turn on the machine, you'll be free to generate as much flame and heat as you wish. I dare say you'll have no choice. If you produce enough, you may even survive the procedure, although forcing a mutant's potential to its absolute limit in this way has certain… side effects, I'm afraid."

"Don't!" Shinji croaked, "Take me instead! Don't do this to her!"

"Ah," said Essex, "How heroic. You truly aren't your father's son, boy. Unfortunately, where the young lady can _produce_ energy, you, on the other hand, only seem to be able to manipulate it. Curious, in a way. It's almost as if you were designed for each other."

"Shinji," Asuka whispered. "I…"

"Oh please," Essex chuckled, spreading his hair back with his fingers.

He pulled a series of wires tipped in pads from the machine and began attaching them to her skin, her forehead first.

"I would say this won't hurt a bit," he shrugged, "but then, I do so detest cliché."

* * *

><p>Maya stifled a sob. He took Ritsuko. He took her away, and Maya did nothing. She sat there and watched the monster take her away. He hurt Misato. She was lying on the floor in what Maya assumed was Asuka's bedroom, and she was twisted weirdly. The older woman groaned softly and Maya crawled over to her on all fours, gingerly, and sat down next to her. She considered for a moment, and tried to get her arms under Misato's shoulders to help her sit up.<p>

"Don't," Misato croaked.

Maya swallowed. "Why?"

Misato chuckled softly, and winced. "My back hurts like hell, but only from the waist up. I can't feel my legs."

Maya bit back another sob, her trembling lower lip aching from biting it.

"Get my phone," said Misato. "It's in my jacket pocket."

Gingerly, she fished around in Misato's pocket until she found the phone and pulled it out. She opened it, dialed the number for the bridge crew, and waited. There was only a hissing sound followed by a series of dull clicks, and the phone beeped as the call was terminated. Maya sighed and closed the phone.

"The line is dead."

Misato smirked. "Figures."

"What?"

"It wasn't supposed to end like this," said Misato. "I was supposed to lead Nerv to victory over the angels. Avenge my father."

"Your father?" said Maya.

"Died in Second Impact."

"But-"

"Yeah," said Misato, "Everybody's father died in Second Impact. Dad, though, he was right there. So was I. I bet you didn't know that."

Maya shook her head. "I thought it was a meteor."

"Nope. Science experiment. I don't know what they were doing, I was only a kid. My father was big in the predecessor to Nerv. They tried to run the experiment, and the thing in that picture you showed me killed him, killed everybody, did something to the First Angel. Caused Second Impact. Scarred me."

"Scarred you?"

"I have a big scar on my chest," said Misato. "That's why I never wear a bikini."

Maya blinked. Misato smirked at her, and broke out into a weak snicker. "Nevermind. Only people who've ever seen it are Kaji and Ritsuko."

"Oh," said Maya.

"Get me a beer, would you?"

Maya blinked, then slowly stood up and made her way across the ruins of Asuka's door into the kitchen. Misato actually had two refrigerators, for some reason. She could swear there were tiny paw prints or something leading up to the one, and when she pulled on it, the door was firmly closed. She opened the big refrigerator instead, found a can of cold beer, and opened it. She found a coffee mug and poured some out into it, and walked back towards the bedroom. She froze in the hall.

There was something wrong with the sky outside, with the world outside. It was pitch black, not an iota of light anywhere. She couldn't even see the balcony itself through the plate glass of the sliding doors. She stared at it for a moment in confusion, and then the coffee cup slid out of her hand and thumped against the carpeted floor, rolling and spilling its contents until it came to rest by the handle. The darkness pressed against the doors moved, and one of them slowly slid open. Thin tendrils of inky black probed into the apartment, sliding along the walls and reaching out from the main mass like whiskers.

"I shoulda' known," Misato croaked. "Come to finish me off?"

* * *

><p>Mari was leading the way now, and it made sense, since Jarvis, or Dad, or Jarvis-Dad knew where to go, having already accessed the Chinese Nerv branch's systems. A series of arrows pointed her in the right direction, and without it, she'd have been lost. The whole base was set up like a maze, with corridors that went nowhere, or turned on themselves in bizarre hairpins for no reason. She disdained the taking of elevators and instead thunked down metal stairwells in broad corridors, the whole structure shaking under the weight of the suit. Kaji gingerly followed, stopping to peer over the side.<p>

"You know where you're going?"

"Yes," Mari rolled her eyes, answering him for the ninth time.

"We really should be running away. They'll know you're gone by now."

"He's right," said the voice in her ear.

"What's your primary function?"

"Keeping you safe," said the voice.

"Okay," said Mari. "To keep me safe, we have to slow these people down any way we can."

She found what she was looking for in the form of a sign indicating the EVANGELION PRODUCTION PLANT, which aimed down a sloping corridor with smooth walls, wide enough to move large objects through. The floors were marked with metal-lined indentations, apparently to accommodate some sort of ratcheting machine, and the ceiling was fairly high as well. Their footsteps echoed as Kaji followed her down, fiddling nervously with his satchel.

"Why do you carry a purse, anyway?" said Mari, "Shouldn't you have, like a utility belt?"

"This isn't a comic book," Kaji muttered.

"They probably run big parts down this tunnel," Mari observed.

"Yeah," said Kaji. "You realize, they know I've broken you out by now."

"Probably," said Mari.

They reached the end of the tunnel. The main doors were heavy steel and slid along tracks, and although Mari probably could have pried them open, there was a smaller solid core door to the left she could just yank right out of the wall, prying it away with the fingers of her gauntlets. Inside was a short tunnel –the doors must have been equally thick—and another door. On the other side, she froze in place for a moment and gasped, Kaji fidgeting behind her, trying to get a look.

This was the China facility's Eva cage, and it dwarfed the Tokyo-3 version. The huge structure went off into the distance, each alcove big enough to house a large building on its own. A criss-crossing pattern of catwalks and gantries crossed a sea of LCL, and the whole vastness was irregularly lit from above by huge lights like stage lights, some of them covered with condensation. There were actually clouds running along the ceiling, as the space was so large it had its own weather pattern. It probably rained in there sometimes.

The first two Evas were familiar looking, and bore a superficial resemblance to the clean, streamlined look of Unit Two, although both were primer gray rather than a bright red. They were only partly finished, and Mari started when she realized they had biological components- the arms of Unit Four were unarmored, and were a tanned, leathery color, the huge muscles striated and covered in a network of visible veins. Similarly, only half of Unit Three's head was covered, and an eye, an actual green eye was swiveling around the room. Orange-suited technicians moved between the creatures, ignoring its gaze.

Beyond them were things out of hell. Only partly finished, the remaining Evas were sick paroidies of the others. Their hunched bodies were lightly armored, although only four of the thirteen were actually finished. The others hung in a bizarre fetal stage, lumpy bodies hanging into the LCL, their skin moving and pulsating. Their heads weren't human at all. Eyeless, they were mostly mouth, with huge, red, human lips over long rows of big, conical teeth. It gave them a vaguely shark-like or lizard-like cast, although their pallid flesh made them more like worms. Over their skin was a network of cables almost like chicken wire, stretched and digging into their skin. It almost looked painful. Some of them had massive surgical incisions, and the one closest appeared to be growing the buds of wings over its shoulders.

"My God," said Mari. "What are these things?"

The technicians scattered as an alarm began bleating overhead, accompanied by a flashing blue light. Mari looked and zoomed in on some of the distant parts of the cages. Guards with submachine guns were running in, and although a few posed little threat to her, they were followed by a team carrying a rocket propelled grenade.

"Shit," said Mari, "Shit, shit, shit."

"We have to go," said Kaji. "Right now."

"But-"

"Mari," said Kaji, "I don't want to have you on my conscience, too."

The effect was somewhat spoiled by the goblin mask. Mari sighed and nodded, and they turned. As they sprinted up the tunnel, she heard the sound of boots on pavements. She pulled Kaji behind her as they reached the far end, and a spray of bullets raked along her armored back. She turned, let the targeting system pick out the guards, and dropped each with a quick, whining low-power repulsor blast. Kaji ran along next to her.

"We have to get to the hangar. I'm not riding out of here on my glider."

"How did you get here, anyway?"

"I stole a jet."

Mari snorted.

"International master criminal," Kaji shrugged. "The one I flew in on is out of gas."

"Great," said Mari.

* * *

><p>Shinji didn't dare move. The shallow cut on his neck had just reached the point where it was beginning to sting furiously, far out of proportion with its severity. He could smell his own blood and he knew that despite her comparatively diminutive size, the girl holding him with a pair of razors at this throat could kill him at any moment. If he even thought of his gift, pain lanced through his spine and cascaded into the rest of his body. He had no choice but to stand there and watch Essex strap Asuka into his machine. He swallowed, and felt the pressure of the blades on his Adam's apple, pulling at his skin.<p>

There had to be another way. Something he could do. It couldn't end like this.

He tried to think. The way his magic worked, as far as he understood it, drew on his connection with the earth, with the element of metal. He was running out of time. He had to do something. Essex had finished attaching the leads to Asuka's body and was fiddling with the controls for the machine. She'd taken on a stoic look of indifference, staring off into space. This had to be a dream, a nightmare. It couldn't be happening, but it was. He had to think. He couldn't attack, couldn't fight.

Sinister activated the machine. He thought Asuka would resist, fight back, spit defiance at him, something. Instead, she whimpered for the barest, second, slumping against the restraints, and then screamed. Before it started draining the energy from her, the heat filled the room and made him sweat instantly. White hot flames instantly wreathed her form, so bright he closed his eyes and saw an after effect, as if he'd stared into the sun, the purple outline of her form etched onto his retinas. He spared her a glance and saw her illuminated by her own fire, the image of her body like a photographic negative it was so bright. She futilely pulled at the machine, trying to scream even as she breathed in so she could scream more.

He couldn't fight. He couldn't attack. He couldn't do anything.

No, that wasn't true. He closed his eyes. He didn't reach for the world of earth and metal around him. Instead, he tuned out everything, even Asuka's screams, painful as it was. He listened, and he felt the currents of psychic energy wafting through the air. Essex was doing something to the girl, projecting into her mind. Shinji could feel it, but to reach out and touch it would bring only white hot pain and the sudden loss of concentration he needed to use his power. He was a prisoner in his own body.

He would have no choice but to leave it behind.

Meditating on his feet was a test, and while trying desperately to tune out Asuka's screaming, even more so. Instead of ignoring it, he focused on it, let it drown out his other thoughts, the feeling of confinement and the pain on his neck, focused on the single thought above all others, _I am going to save her_. Faster than he would have believed, the single thought pulled him along, and when he opened his eyes, he stared at himself. It startled him for a moment and he almost lost his concentration, staring into his own slack face. He looked around the room and saw the girl holding him and Sinister and Asuka writing in the machine, all moving in agonizing slow motion, Asuka's shriek of pain drawn out into a long, ululating gurgle.

He was free, but only in spirit, not in body. He had no means of interacting with the physical world. Even with subjective time slowed now that he was free of the limits of a physical body, he had to move quickly. There was no time to contact Stephen for help. Standing outside his body with no circle or wards, he was instantly and terrible vulnerable. He couldn't help Asuka or anyone else if an astral predator skimming along the material plane devoured his mind and left his body an empty, vegetative shell.

He turned to Essex. He saw the man now as he truly was, free of his mortal shell, a double image of his very soul superimposed over his body. Shinji was at once enraged and deeply saddened at the blackened, twisted thing he saw, a monstrous, vampiric, lurking thing twisted on a secret core he couldn't see, a fuzzy image of a memory he longed to dispose of. Trying to invade a mind so ancient and well protected –he could see now that Essex was a powerful psychic in his own right, the defenses of his mind like rising bastions of an ancient castle—would be futile. There was nothing he could do for Asuka, either. If she could escape, it would be on her own.

He had to tear himself away from gazing into her soul. Free of physicality, she was even more an angel, a being of light and life in purest form. To gaze upon her astral form thrilled him, but he winced at the same time. Someone had tampered with her mind, binding some part of her very soul in chains and cloaking it in a foul shroud to hide it from her conscious mind. He could almost see something inside of it; the shroud was shredded and torn, billowing in the psychic winds, the chains rusted and cracked. For the barest second he glimpsed a stunning woman who was Asuka's equal in beauty, the girl's sky blue eyes and red-gold hair grown into womanly perfection. It pained him to turn away from her.

There was something else in the room, he realized, a lurking shadow that loomed and spilled around the strange silver-haired boy in the tube, pressing against the glass. It reached thin tendrils for him, and for the barest instant it turned its attention to Shinji and he felt the ancient weight of its mind pushing him back, and he mustered every defense he could, fighting to hold onto his own mind. There was too much, this thing's mind was too dense, and he could only pick the barest impression of it from the surface, as if it were too large to see.

The one holding him, Mana, was his only choice. Her soul was occluded from him, wrapped in thorns and dark shadows. He caught glimpses of her true self sliding over it, images on the outer edges like reflections on a soap bubble. Every alternative exhausted, he rested his spectral hands on the side of her forehead and pressed, willing himself into her mind. With the path already opened by Essex' manipulations, her mental defenses collapsed like an already broken eggshell, and he slid into her mind with ease.

He caught his bearings. He was inside her mind, now, inside her mental landscape the way Strange had first contacted him inside the dreams of his mother. The girl herself was nowhere to be seen. He stood in a small house, barely big enough to be called by the name, little more than a shack. The world was all a light gray, as if the color had been drained out of it, save for splashes of hue here and there. He realized what he was seeing were flashes of memory. He saw a ghostly glimpse of disembodied hands, rough and strong but also gentle, the girl's fathers; a brilliantly rendered painting on one wall, a piece of art from the house where she grew up. An empty dress floated by, brilliant and bedecked in a floral pattern.

He had to find her, had to free her from the mental trap. He walked to the front of the house and opened the door, running on purse sense and instinct. When he pulled it open it fragmented in his hands, the doorknob tearing away from rotten wood. The other side of the door was burned and puckered, bits of ash still aglow. He took a step back as the heat washed over him, followed by a rain of ash, and he wondered for a moment what event would conjure such a hellscape the girl's fragmented mind. He saw a moment later.

She'd been in Tokyo when the bomb fell.

The image of the mushroom cloud, like the ghost of an old silvery tree, still hung in the air, and the stench of fire was fresh in her mind. He understood the pain he felt all around him, now. Years before, when in the aftermath of Second Impact a group of Chinese nationalists managed to fire a nuclear missile at Japan, this girl had been somewhere near the explosion. Not too close, but not so far as to be spared. Where her parents must have died, her genetic gift activated to stave off certain death and granted her the ability to heal from any injury, to ignore age and disease, but at the cost of her memory. He clutched at his chest, the realization filling him up with a burning sorrow. As her body perfectly repaired itself, it would see the neural connections in her mind, the memories of her past, as an imperfection and steal them from her. Now more than ever, he had to find her.

He walked down a path of ash between charred trees that looked like the hands of an old skeleton, erupted from the earth. Ashfall, like thick pieces of snow, drifted out of the sky, and the sun was a sallow color, haunted like a harvest moon. His feet sunk to his ankles in the ash on the ground, and he coughed a few times before he reminded himself that he wasn't physical present. When he finally saw the girl, she wasn't what he expected.

Curled on herself in a parka, she looked to be two or three years old at most. He knelt down beside her and watched her for the briefest time. She was trying to make a tiny shape in the thick ash, only to watch it collapse again, unable to hold its form. Tears streamed down her chubby cheeks. He moved closer to her and was suddenly shoved backwards, a skeletal hand of charred bone thrusting into his shoulder. He grunted and fell on his backside.

The part of Nathaniel Essex that had invaded her mind and controlled her actions loomed over him in the form of a blackened, ever burning skeleton, a figure of living nuclear death. Heat washed off of it, and despite its rigid features it grinned maniacally at him, flames snarling from within it. The girl ignored them both and continued playing in the ash. Shinji stood up.

"Get out," the skeleton thundered, and he felt a wave of psychic force pressing on him, trying to push him out of the dream, remind him of his position and the condition of his body.

He had the advantage. He was here in the totality of his being, while Essex was dividing his will in multiple directions at once, focusing himself on multiple tasks. Shinji grappled with the mental image, grabbing the burning ribs of its chest with his hands and wrenching it away. The girl gasped and looked up at him, and he tried not to scream as the heat became more intense. He had only moments of real time before Essex dropped what he was doing and turned to his full attention to him, and he couldn't overcome that.

"Mana!" he screamed, "Mana run! You'll be safe in the house! Run!"

The girl stood, shaking, and looked up at them for a moment. Every instant the pressure on Shinji's mind grew more intense, and he cried again, "Run!"

It was over quickly. Sinister forced him out of the girl's mind and the shock of it sent him spiraling back into his own body. He opened his eyes, gasped, and then emitted a soft moan as fatigue and the pain in his neck and the sensation of the collar and the sheer weight of regaining his physical form cascaded into his being. He slumped, the look of victory on Essex's face stinging him like a whip.

But only for a moment, until Mana reached behind his neck, found the clasp of the collar, and undid the latch.

* * *

><p>Maya was confused, to put it simply.<p>

The recently paralyzed Misato Katsuragi was now standing and walking, and there was a manic gleam in her eye as she stared at her own hands, transfixed. Maya had seen things since she worked for Nerv, seen the Evas without their armor, and she thought she could handle anything after gazing into the sheer incomprehensible terror that was the angels. Watching the being of living shadow flood into Misato's apartment and take her was something else. It grabbed her roughly, and she screamed in terror as it ate through her clothes, left her uniform in tatters on the floor as it slid and slithered over her body. She pressed against the wall, watching Misato, now on all fours, have a one sided argument with the great pulsating thing that enveloped her, covering her like a second skin.

"What do you want," Misato demanded, groaning.

She fell on her side, curling into the fetal position.

"It's so cold," she whispered, "so lonely."

She wasn't looking at Maya, who slid along the wall to put some distance between herself and whatever she was witnessing.

"I understand, now," said Misato. "You just don't want to be alone, do you?"

Maya pressed her eyes shut. She could feel Misato approach her, and slowly opened her eyes again. She was standing up, and her uniform was gone. In its place was a thick coating of black fluid that moved and pulsated over her skin. It soaked her hair, drawing it out and extending it somehow, so that it was both thicker and more lustrous, curled now, and _alive_, moving and feeling at the air like tendrils. The substance stopped just beneath her collarbone, leaving her shoulders and throat exposed like a low cut dress. Marked out on her chest was a spidery thing in white, its body jagged and twisted- tracing, Maya presumed, the location of the scar that ran up from her belly and between her breasts to the left side of her chest. Her stomach was flatter and when she moved her arms, new muscles flexed.

"Don't be afraid," Misato whispered to her, drawing close, "We won't hurt you."

Maya whimpered, and Misato stroked her chin, the points of her black fingers like talons, teasing over her skin.

"We have to go," she said as she pulled back, shaking her head.

"M-Misato?" Maya whimpered.

"It's okay," said Misato, "I've got this. I think I can handle it."

"B-but the monster," said Maya.

"It's not a monster," said Misato, "it's just lonely."

She shook her head, and spoke to no one in particular. "Not like this. Settle down, and be clothes."

Maya swallowed, and as she watched, the black substance pulled and twisted, its color and texture shifting, like a chameleon, but moreso. Misato's hair shortened to its normal length, and the _thing_ snaked up around her shoulders and hung itself down in a jacket. The white spidery thing curled on itself and became the cross hanging from her neck. The uniform was still slightly off, though- the tight sweater pulled up a bit, showing just a hint of skin, and her skirt was both shorter and tighter than usual. Misato didn't seem to mind, though, or even notice.

"I feel _great._"

Maya moved away from the wall, and offered Misato her gun. She waved her hand dismissively.

"We… I don't need that. Come on, we have to get to headquarters."

Maya followed her slowly, out through the apartment door and down the stairwell. The building was deserted, and the parking lot empty except for Misato's blue sports car. Misato slowly made her way around to the driver's side, all but strutting, constantly checking her reflection in the finish of the car. Maya shakily got in and fastened her seat belt, where Misato pointedly ignored it. When she turned the key and gunned the engine, she touched the steering wheel, an almost perverse look of satisfaction came over her face.

"What happened to you?" Maya said softly.

Misato closed her eyes in appreciation as she gunned the engine again before tearing out onto the road, tires squealing. She leaned into the turn and squealed in delight, like a little girl, almost bouncing up and down in her seat.

"So much more fun than the Gendo," she muttered.

"What?" said Maya. "Misato? What happened? Are you crazy or something?"

"No," she grinned, "We are Venom_."_

* * *

><p>Rei led the way, and Hikari, Toji, and "Spot" followed. Hikar kept glancing at the tiger as it walked beside her, massive muscles flexing under its skin, shoulder blades pinwheeling back and forth as it moved. It was somewhere between a huge tabby cat and a giant murder machine that would eat her at any moment. It seemed to be taking a liking to her, though, as it flexed its ears at her and bumped her side with its massive skull a few times, as if she expected Hikari start petting her. Hikari reluctantly obliged, scratching at the big cat's ears. When it purred, there was something terrifying even about that. Toji seemed amused by the whole thing.<p>

"We must secure Unit Zero," said Rei.

"What?" said Hikari. "Our friends, we can't just-"

"Unit Zero is the only operational Evangelion," said Rei. "If the angel begins moving again, I must destroy it, or we will all die."

"Isn't that going to be tough to do by yourself?" said Toji.

"I am prepared to do all that is necessary. If I die, I can be replaced."

Toji stopped. "Rei, don't say stuff like that. You can't be replaced!"

Rei shook her head, but said nothing.

"We can't just leave everybody," said Hikari. "We have to figure out what's going on, find the other pilots, get our classmates out. Who knows what the hell is happening to them?"

Rei stopped. "The main brig is not far from here. I can show you."

Hikari nodded, and they went on. The whole place was a maze of featureless corridors, twisting on themselves for no apparent reason. Once in a while, there was a map on the wall, but it looked more like some occult drawing out of some cheesy magic book than a map of a military base. It was all incredibly confusing. At least they weren't running into any more lizardmen.

Hikari winced. Oh well, at least she hadn't said it out loud.

Rei paused at a seemingly innocuous point in the hallway. Hikari looked up and noticed a grating in the ceiling. Rei glanced at it, and then at Hikari.

"You can access the ventilation system here. Keep to the right, and it will take you to the brig."

Hikari nodded, then jumped up and put her feet against the ceiling so she could work the grate with her hands. Failing to find a way to open it, she put her fingers through the metal slats and pulled it out with a snapping sound and tossed it aside. Rei looked at her blankly for a moment.

"There was a latch."

"Anybody else coming?" said Hikari.

Toji glanced at her, and then at Rei.

"I'm going with Rei," he said.

Hikari nodded. "It's better this way. I can move faster without you."

Toji looked a little wounded, and she regretted saying it, but crawled into the ventilation duct anyway, finding it strangely more comfortable to hang from the ceiling rather than shimmy along the floor. She winced as she started to move and the metal made warbling buckling sounds, like a little kid imitating thunder with a piece of sheet metal. She moved along the surface, and when the first fork came, moved to the right side, as Rei directed. As she did, she began to feel the buzzing at the back of her neck and slowed, trying to make less noise. She found another grate, but it led only to another hallway and there was a latch, but it was on the inside, so there.

She kept on until she heard voices. She paused at the next grate, the buzzing in her head more intense now. Two lizard men in their black uniforms walked under her, and she figured she had the right place. Slowly, she undid the latch and pulled the grate diagonally up and set it inside the duct, and poked her head through. Running up and down a long hallway was a cell block, and the cells were full of her classmates and people in Nerv uniform. Gingerly, she worked her way out of the duct and along the ceiling, pressing flat against it. The lizardmen predictably didn't look up, and that was good, because if they did, she was screwed.

She walked past one cell where three men sat on the beds. One of them had long hair, and the other was kind of cute and wore glasses, and the one guy looked old and like he might be in charge of something, because his uniform was different. Hikari made her way along the ceiling to their cell and said, "Hey."

The guy with the glasses started to yelp until the old man clamped a hand over his mouth and gestured for silence. He nodded at Hikari and then leaned back against the wall.

"It's too bad we can't get out," he said to the other two, who stared at him in confusion.

Hikari caught onto his game quickly. If they started talking to her, the lizards would spot her in a second. The old man went on.

"If we could, we could go down to the end of the cell block," he gestured over his shoulder, "and open the cells. Of course, we'd have to figure out how to get rid of all of these guards first."

The guy in the glasses nodded. "We could set off an alarm in another part of the base. It's a good thing I know the password for that terminal down there is K7232#."

"Yeah," said the long-haired guy, "It would be great if we could sneak down there, hit the alarm, and wait until these guys leave and then we could just walk out."

Hikari nodded and moved along the ceiling carefully. She got a few stares, but everyone seemed too terrified to say anything. When she finally got to the end, she waited until no one was looking, dropped down into a crouch, and carefully worked her way into the guard station. Huddling under the desk, she typed in the password, picked an alarm at random, and hit the enter key.

The alarm began bleating, and lizardmen ran around in a panic, visibly confused. She waited until the block cleared, peeked over the desk, and then threw the big switch to open the cells. The old man strode out confidently into the mess, somehow towering over the Nerv people and students.

"Listen to me," he boomed, "We don't have much time. If we head to the Section 2 barracks, we can arm ourselves. Children, stay behind the adults. Let's move."

* * *

><p>When Mari final made the turn that would take them to the surface hangars where the facility kept its aircraft, she skidded to a stop. The place was teeming with guards, and while they were no problem for her and probably Kaji, she wasn't flying out of there in the emergency modular suit, which meant they needed to commander an aircraft. She waited just out of sight while Kaji caught up with her, the voice changer in his mask making his panting sound like a series of agonized grunts.<p>

"What do we-"

Before she even finished, Kaji pulled a pair of pumpkins from his satchel, flicked the stems off, and tossed them out onto the hangar deck. They hissed and spewed thick green smoke, prompting coughs from the guards. He dove behind Mari with a yelp as bullets ping-panged off her armor. He gave he a short push, but in the armor it did nothing but rock her on her heels a bit and make the servos grind.

"Go," he snapped, "We need to move as quickly as possible."

Three of the big Nerv VTOLs waited at the far end. Kaji ran along beside her through the smoke, holding his gloves at a ready position. When a coughing guard appeared out of the smoke, he spun around behind the man and slapped his palms against his face. There was a snapping pop of al electric shock, and the guard went down. Kaji knelt and picked up his gun, and then went on.

"Hey," said Mari, "these guys are just-"

"I know," Kaji barked. "I promise I won't shoot anyone unless they're about to return you to the Red Skulls' clutches."

"Did you just say clutches?"

"It's part of my job, move!"

She went up the lowered staircase into the first VTOL behind Kaji. He dropped his satchel and smoothly slid into the seat and started running through the process of firing up the machine, flipping switches and turning dials. When the staircase pulled up and the hatched closed, he pulled his mask off and tossed it on the floor, and peeled his hood back. Mari sat down in the co-pilot's seat, reached behind her head, and unfixed the helmet. It came apart in two sections, and she dropped it at her side with a thud. She was sweaty and her hair was plastered to her head, and without her glasses she had to squint. Kaji glanced at her while he worked the controls.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said, turning back to the controls. "Put your seat belt on."

"We're going to have a hell of a time getting out of here in this thing," said Mari.

"Our escort should be getting here soon."

The engines spun up, drowning the cabin in their steady thrum. Kaji put on a headset and Mari did the same, and the little speaker crackled in her ear. She started looking around for something to do as Kaji starting to taxi the craft forward, and found the radar array. When she started it up there was nothing but noise, which made sense, since they were indoors. Kaji ran the throttle home and the VTOL pushed out through the open doors onto the tarmac. It was dark, although the stars were drowned out by the lights of the installation all around. She could see the pyramid of the main complex off to her left.

The radar came alive. The system tagged the aircraft all around them. They probably had friend-or-foe transponders. The problem was that some of them were marked out as jets, and a lot of them were flying. Mari looked over at Kaji.

"We're not going to make it."

He immediately pulled back on the yoke, and the engines began to twist around beside them, the sound of the motors turning the pods almost louder than the engines themselves, and her stomach sank as the craft took off. Mari focused on the radar until blinking warning lights caught her attention.

"They've got a lock on us."

"I know," said Kaji.

He muscled the controls to the side, and skill skimming low over the complex, the VTOL banked, but it was slow and fat and cumbersome, and they had no countermeasures. She looked around for something, a way to drop some chaff or flares, but there was none. She leaned into the turn, swallowing. Kaji threw a switch and the side hatch opened, and the air inside the cabin rushed out with a thunderous roar. He reached into a hidden pocket under his tunic and produced a small cube. He glanced at it, turned it over in his fingers, and depressed one side with his thumb before tossing it out through the door, and then hit the switch to close it up again.

"What was that?"

"Gift from a guy that wears a fishbowl on his head," said Kaji.

There was a flash of light, and a _second_ VTOL appeared beside them, and veered off in the opposite direction when Kaji banked. Mari watched the radar screen, biting her lip, hoping the incoming missiles would veer off and follow the decoy. Most of them did, all but one. She pushed back into the seat and closed her eyes, waiting for the impact.

The screen beeped and she opened her eyes. The missile lock disappeared, and she felt the explosion behind them push the craft forward as it went off, short of its mark. Three new contacts appeared on the radar, small objects moving alongside the VTOL. Mari's eyes widened as she turned and saw the Mark X armor flying alongside them. The suit waved at her. She waved back, dumbly, and then stared at her hand. The Mark IV and VI armors appeared on the other side.

"Huh," said Kaji.

"Punch it," said Mari, "Let's get the hell out of here."

"On it," said Kaji.

* * *

><p>There was a sort of pregnant pause. Shinji felt the substance of the collar, now as it clinked against the floor, and as the girl relaxed away from him, he felt her, too, the metal in her skeleton all but singing to him. He felt the machine in which Asuka was ensnared, and he unmade it. The device pulled apart into its component pieces, and the lights overhead flashed and stuttered from the sudden electromagnetic interference. Asuka slumped in his arms, unconscious, and he knelt to the floor with her, drawing the floating bits of metallic debris around him in a shield.<p>

Essex roared in fury and charged forward, his fists wreathed in crackling whorls of energy. He rammed his arms out and unleashed a cascade of raw force that blew Shinji's shield apart and sent him and Asuka rolling backwards. He curled himself around her, trying to protect her neck as she rolled. Snarling incoherently like an animal, Essex hefted a chunk of his machine and lifted it overhead, ready to bring it down on them.

Asuka opened her eyes. She pointed her fingers at him.

"Burn."

A jet of superheated plasma cut a purple swath across Shinji's vision. It hit Essex like a blowtorch, launching him backwards. The piece of debris melted instantly, running white hot over him like wax. He screamed and stumbled into the great tubular machine with the fair-haired boy and knocked it loose. It tumbled over, breaking, and the fluid inside spilled across the floor, slopping up against the walls. Mana ran to it, pried it open with her claws, and lifted the limp boy out, cradling him with a surprising strength.

Sinister pulled the now cooling slab of metal off of himself and stood up. For a moment, he was a mangled mass of burned pale flesh, but a look of concentration twisted his ruined face and he slowly slid back into form, like clay molded by invisible hands. He watched the boy open his red eyes and laughed, hard, raising his fists in triumph.

"You're too late," he roared, "He lives! He lives!"

"Asuka," said Shinji. "Hold on."

She blinked and weakly put her arms around him, just in time to catch him as his body slumped against her while he once again assumed his astral form. He stepped outside his body and watched in horror as the great lurking thing he'd seen before moved and swirled around the silver-haired boy, reaching into his mind with thin tendrils of icy malice.

Shinji raised his hands and called for winds, and the winds came, surging through the spiritual world and into the physical and back again. The smoky form of the creature reeled and reached out like a flag, desperately clawing at the boy's psyche. Shinji stepped forward, visualizing a protective white light spilling out from his body.

The creature took notice of him now, part of it rearing up and forming an almost-fast, a cruel, ancient visage bedecked in the raiment of a pharaoh, with a crested helm and long, braided beard. It smiled at him and surged forward, and he raised a shield of will to protect himself from it.

_You are nothing_.

"Go away," Shinji snapped, pushing back against it.

_I am eternal. I am the First One. I am the rock of ages._

He felt himself sliding back, being pushed into his body. Behind him, moving in agonizing slow motion, Asuka slid her arms under his shoulder and pulled him up, screaming something at him. He should have explained the idea of leaving his body to her, but there was no time. She touched his cheek with her bare hand.

Raw, unending power surged into him. It startled him for a moment, and he nearly lost his concentration. He stepped forward easily, pushing the entity back. He raised both arms and folded his fingers forward in the ancient gesture Strange taught him. The creature detached from the silver-haired boy's head, and Shinji reached out to engulf it in a circle and trap it. Before he could. It swirled on itself, compressed, and fled screaming onto the Astral Plane.

He opened his eyes and sat up, and Asuka gasped.

"What did you do?" Essex roared, bearing down on them.

Asuka turned on him, her face twisted in fury, and from her palm focused a beam of heat so intense Shinji instinctively shielded his eyes from it. Essex screamed and stumbled backwards, and when Shinji opened his eyes, the man had a hole burned clean through him. He stared down at himself with a look of wry amusement as the hole slid shut, the putty-like form of his body repairing itself almost instantaneously.

"You're trying to physically harm me," said Essex. "How quaint."

Shinji reached out and touched everything in the room. Every chunk of debris, every medical instrument, every scalpel, every switch, every wire, everything but the substance on the bones of the girl, Mana. As Essex drew closer, he reached out further, until he found something else, something that resonated the same as the girl, had the same strange pitch to it, bubbling in a vat in a the nearby room. Shinji reached for it, pulled it into a ball, and brought it right through the wall. Essex's head snapped around in a panic as he watched the sphere of molten metal melt through the far wall and barrel towards him. Shinji twisted and warped it even as it cooled. It began to fight him, solidifying as it lost its heat, and he would lose it any moment.

"Asuka! Heat it up!"

Asuka blinked at him, and then turned her power on the molten metal. Essex tried to run, but Shinji unfolded the white hot sphere and wrapped it around him, covering his entire body with it. Essex shrieked in pain and naked terror, and Shinji's stomach turned as he watched the _creature_ try to twist out of the trap by changing his shape, abandoning human form and reshaping himself into vile white putty, but it was too late. Shinji closed his fist and a perfect sphere of the substance formed around him and crushed down to the smallest possible size, his hand shaking as he held it in place.

"Let it cool."

Asuka let up and slumped against the wall beside him, and the rapidly cooling sphere thunked on the floor, cracking the tiles, and rolled along into one of the cabinets along the wall. It radiated heat for a few moments, making small popping sounds as it cooled and shrank even further. It moved slightly as the thing inside lurched, trying in vain to find an opening, and Shinji quickly raised a psychic shield as a spectral scream of raw fury filled the room, shattering glass and buckling the walls, sending spiraling cracks up the sides.

Quickly, he limped to his feet and stumbled over to it. He looked around in desperation, and finding nothing, touched his own cheek, where a thin trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He let it well up on his fingertip, and then quickly scrawled a warding phrase on the outside of the sphere, forcing the wailing from inside back down on itself until he was crushingly, coldly alone. Asuka caught him as he fell backwards into her arms, clutching him as if she was afraid he would disappear.

* * *

><p>Rei stopped in the corridor, and her tiger curled up beside her. She turned to Toji.<p>

"You will go to the command center. Once I am in the Eva, I will tell you what to do if we need to launch."

"But-"

"It is important," said Rei.

He followed her as she led him out into the Evangelion cage. He'd seen one close up before, but not for any length of time or in any real detail. Unit Zero loomed over them, staring down with one hateful cyclopean eye, and he got the terrible impression that it was looking at him. It was uncomfortable. The whole room smelled like blood, and it was ice cold, and the walls and ceiling were so far away it felt like he was outside and he wasn't, and the whole effect made his stomach quiver. He looked away from the Eva. Rei caught him by surprise.

She put both hands on his cheeks, turned his head, and kissed him. It was a real kiss, not an I'm-hungry-and-I'm-trying-to-drain-your-blood kiss, and he instinctively threw his arms around her. His legs weakened, and his head swirled. He wasn't sure if it was from the strange effect he felt whenever her lips touched him, or simply the act itself. She took her time with it, and when it was time to come up for air he gasped.

"What was that for?"

"I have my reasons," said Rei.

"You're acting funny."

"Go to the command center. Follow the bridge over there," she pointed, "and take the elevator. Once you are there, I will be able to contact you from the Eva."

Shaking, he jogged down the metal bridge as Rei headed up towards the side of the Eva, where it hunched forward at the neck and the entry plug jutted out. "Spot" circled in front of it on the bridge and sat down, just like a regular cat, except she was ridiculously oversized. There was concern in her eyes, and Toji turned away, heading for the elevator. He had to wait for the damn thing, tapping his foot on the metal floor. Once inside, he pushed the clearly labeled button and waited.

The command center looked like it belonged on a ship. He walked down onto the lower part, where all the computers were, and looked around. Some of it was smashed, but the three terminals at the front of the room were sitting there, cursors blinking as they awaited commands. The room was vast and felt empty and cold, and the static-covered screen that dominated it was giving him a headache. He sat down at the middle terminal and waited.

Rei appeared on the screen, her face huge and looming, and Toji jumped in surprise.

"You have arrived. That is good."

"What do we do now?"

"We…"

Everything went crazy. All of the screens began blinking, and a bleating alarm drowned Rei's soft voice out for a moment. Toji flailed around aimlessly at the buttons in front of him until he hit one and the alarm died out. Rei's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"That is the blue pattern alert," she said softly. "The angel has become active again."

Toji swallowed. "So you have to fight it."

"Yes."

"What do I do?"

She began reciting instructions, starting with how to log into the computer. Once he was in, he had to type a series of commands to free the Eva from the cage, retract the gantries, and let it walk to the catapult. He thought he was doing a fine job. Once she was in place, Rei told him how to switch on the external cameras and set the launch pattern to carry her out through the right tube. He saw the creature on the screen and gasped.

It was a multi-legged thing, like a great centipede of dark gray flesh, dotted with glowing red spheres. It moved haltingly, as if unfamiliar with its new form, away from the beach. Toji watched, open mouthed, as it reared up and began to move inland, scrabbling limbs throwing up a cloud of dust. He was still staring when people began to flood into the room, men and women in Nerv uniforms. A hand fell onto his shoulder, and he looked up and saw Misato Katsuragi.

"Watch out, kid."

He stood up and took a step back, and a guy with short hair and glasses slid into his spot. There was a sudden buzz of activity. Shinji and Asuka limped into the room, holding each other up, the latter's plugsuit burned off around her hands and feet, and torn around her neck. Shinji looked like a mile of bad road, with bruises around his eyes and a crust of dried blood around his lips.

"Rei," said Misato. "Come back. We need to develop a plan, here."

"Negative," said Rei.

Misato blinked. "What?"

"Pilot Ayanami," said the old man up on the high part of the bridge, "You will return to base. That is an order."

"Negative. Defeating the angel is our top priority."

"We need to deploy all three of you-"

"Impossible. The angel will not permit the recovery of the other two Units. I must face it alone."

"Rei," said Misato. "Get back here, damn it. That thing will kill you."

"If I die, I can be replaced."

Toji's stomach clenched. "Can she still hear me?"

"Yes," said Rei.

"Rei, come back, do what they say-"

"Toji," said Rei. "I would like to have danced with you."

The room went silent. On the screen, Unit Zero dropped its umbilical and ran towards the angel. Rei took a flying leap and landed on its back, and it curled around her, its flesh bubbling. She grunted in pain as it grabbed the Evangelion's arms and legs, twisting them at odd angles. Her eyes opened for a moment, and she became calm.

"Rei," said the guy in the glasses, "You're expanding your field too much. You've surrounded the angel."

"Yes," said Rei.

She looked through the screen, right at Toji, and for a second, her eyes quivered.

Then, she reached down and pulled a lever.

The screen went to static.

"Wait," said Toji, "What just happened?"

"She used her AT-Field to contain it," said the guy in the glasses. "Pattern blue is gone."

"Bring it up," said Misato. "Get another camera."

"I'll have to use the satellite."

Misato's eyes narrowed, "Then _do it._"

The image was fuzzy, distorted by the cloud cover. In the darkness, the sea lapped into a fresh crater where Rei and the angel once stood, a bowl shape carved out of the hills above the beach. Toji stared at it for a moment, uncomprehending, until the realization settled on him and pushed him down his knees.

"Unit Zero has been destroyed."

"She ejected or something, right?" said Toji.

Glasses-guy pulled his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes. Misato stood there and stared in shock. Whispers flowed around the room, and the guy with the long hair had to shout to get everyone's attention.

"Incoming communication," he said again.

Misato shook herself out of it. "Put it up."

A burnished metal mask set in a deep green hood appeared on the screen. A collective gasp flowed through the room, and the old man stood up.

"This is Victor von Doom. The Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force has already capitulated. Latverian forces occupy the capital at Tokyo-2. Nerv will surrender to me immediately, or I will seize your facilities and assets with extreme prejudice."

"Like hell," Misato growled, "Hyuga, start-"

"Belay that," said the old man. "This is Kozo Fuyutsuki, acting commander of Nerv. We surrender."


	13. CRISIS!

Of all of them, it was only she who was free, and yet every breath of air held the tang of a dank cell, and every wall may as well have been bars. Her black dress uniform may as well have been prison stripes, and as Asuka walked and saw judging eyes laying her soul bare, she felt as guilty as she ever had in her life. It was the uniform that drew some of the looks, and her hair, now tightly braided behind her head. In her black dress fatigues and high boots, her uniform adorned with the insignia of the Latverian high command, medals on her chest and the personal seal of von Doom hanging from a red ribbon around her throat, she was as much an alien to these people as the uniformed soldiers riding down the street on a half-track, gazing about grimly.

She wished desperately that she might run away, but there was nowhere to go.

Once, in a time of confusion, she had walked these streets and found succor in the strange freedom these people were allowed. Now she found all of that gone. She walked to the newsstand, where she'd read a magazine accusing her illustrious father of depravity and cruelty, images that mocked von Doom and proclaimed the Latverian hegemony over Europe a cruel tyranny, accusing him of genocide and violence, of mad obsession that led people to starve while his resources went to weapons of war. At the time she hadn't believed it, at the time she had been sure, but she marveled at it all the same. Now she stood in front of that same magazine stand. The counter was smashed to bits, the empty shelves torn down from the brick wall where they'd stood. As she turned she glimpsed the old man who'd run the shop. He said nothing, but nothing needed to be said. It was as plain in his eyes as would be if it screamed in her face.

_You did this to me._

She tried to stand proud, but failed. Every eye that fell on her was full of reproach, and behind them all she saw Shinji's face as his hands were bound behind his back, the tears that flowed down his cheeks as he turned away from her, his gaze sinking to the floor. They were all imprisoned down below, in the Geofront.

She stopped in her walking. A crudely chalked image -a spider's web- was drawn on the brick. They weren't all imprisoned. Asuka stopped to brush the chalk away with the thumb of her glove and kept walking, glad that heat never touched her. It was sweltering in Tokyo-3, and the other Latverians were all sweating like mad and tugging at their collars. As she passed, they stopped and bowed until she motioned for them to stand. The attention earned her more recriminating looks from the people. If they were bowing and scraping before a redheaded girl, it was obvious who she must be. She hurried through the throng, feeling a prickling sickness in her stomach at the ease with which they accommodated her passing- hoping she would go away.

The library. She headed for the library. She had her library card in her pocket. The kind woman at the desk had given it to her, with her name and picture on it. When she turned the corner, she froze. She should have known. A knot of black-clad Latverians stood before the library doors. They'd already mounted cameras on the walls, facing the door, to capture entrants from every angle. She jogged up the steps, ignoring them as they knelt and whispered "Your grace". She pushed through the doors.

The kindly woman was gone. The front desk was shuttered. All of the computers had been removed, leaving the desks bare, festooned with cut cables like gray stubble. She walked through the silent structure until she entered the stacks of books, books upon books, only to find that most of them had been removed. Those that remained where Latverian approved texts, endless stacks of the same two or three books spread out on the shelves. She sniffed a little and in her minds eye she saw Shinji again.

She didn't go back out through the front door. She ran to the back of the library, knowing she was on camera, not caring. She pushed through the doors at the rear of the stacks and into the service area behind, where some of the old books still sat on carts, bound together with lengths of tape. They would be taken away, thrown into great macerating machines, and their remnants incinerated. There would be no more history, or philosophy, or any form of the written word that contradicted Doom. She sighed and went out the back door of the library, ducking into a small alley.

She tensed when she felt something looking down at her, and turned around.

Hikari lowered herself on a silvery strand of web, hanging upside down with it clasped in her hands and fed through her feet. She'd hacked off her pigtails and her short hair was a tangled mess. Her cheeks looked raw, as from tears, and her eyes were bloodshot. She sank down until she was hanging by her thread a few feet away from Asuka. She had a backpack tightly cinched to her body and secured around her waist with a belt, and a few odd and ends in pouches tied to the legs of her track suit.

"You," said Hikari.

Asuka faced her. "Fighting me is hopeless. I can incinerate you with a gesture."

"Maybe," said Hikari, cocking her head, "What about him?"

Toji stepped out from the end of the alleyway and stalked forward, slapping his palm into his fist. Asuka tensed, taking her lower lip under her teeth. His gifts made him unique. He would stride through the fire and through he was no stronger than an ordinary boy, she would be helpless to stop him, and once he had a hold of her she would have no hope of escape.

"What do you want?"

"Shinji," said Hikari. "I want him freed, I want the others released."

Asuka looked at the ground "I put my life on the line for him. I did not wish to see him imprisoned. I have no authority to-"

"The _hell _with authority," Hikari snapped, dropping into a crouch. She stood up and pointed her finger at Asuka's chest. "You have the power to fight back. You can do things no one else can."

"I am powerful," she said, hugging herself, "but no one is a match for von Doom, and he is my father…"

"Is he?" said Hikari. "Last I heard, you were adopted."

"He _is_ my father. He raised me. I have known no one else. You would ask me to betray that?"

"If you have to," said Hikari. "We can take him together, if we free the others."

"You don't _understand," _Asuka snapped, blinking away tears. "He is _my father."_

"I understand one thing," said Hikari. "With great power comes great responsibility. We're going to do this with you, or without you."

"I'll warn him," Asuka snapped, spitefully. "I'll ruin your plans. He brings peace and order and stability, and he'll destroy the angels and set us all free. The world will be a better place and when he's gone, I'll follow after him and rule over a golden age that will last a thousand years."

"A thousand years," said Hikari. "I'd tell you to look into the other golden age that was going to last a thousand years, but some jack booted thugs stole our library. Do what you have to do, Asuka. I don't give a damn about you, but Shinji believed in you. He believed enough to choose you over me."

She turned. Toji had vanished, slipping around the corner. When she turned back, she caught a glimpse of Hikari swinging up, kicking her feet out for momentum. Asuka waited until she was gone, folded her arms under her chest, and walked out of the alley with her head down.

* * *

><p>A comfortable prison is still a prison. Shinji had spent the last… he'd lost track of the time. It had to be more than a week, he was sure. He was totally isolated from the outside world, and the inhibitor collar was back around his neck. He tugged at it, thought better of it, and folded his hands on his chest. He had a cot with a thick mattress, but otherwise this chamber was totally blank and white, walls, ceiling, even the combined toilet and sink in the corner. In a fit of what was no doubt hilarious humor, someone had left a copy of von Doom's purported autobiography lying on top of the sink. He'd very carefully torn up the first one and flushed it down the toilet, but when he awoke, there was a new one in its place.<p>

He closed his eyes. He didn't need to tap into his mutant ability, his innate connection to the electromagnetic field, to use sorcery. The problem was, whenever he tried to still himself, a speaker lowered out of the ceiling and began blaring high-pitched, autotuned pop music. If he managed to fall asleep, it stopped, but if he attempted to meditate, the volume would only increase. This time, he set his jaw and focused.

Or rather, he tried to focus. His mind was a roiling vortex of feelings and thoughts, surging through him and devastating his calm. So much had happened, and in less than a day. Everything had gone to hell. Rei was gone. He refused to think of her as dead, she was simply missing. There was more to her than a simple explosion could destroy, he was sure of it. Toji wasn't. Shinji had always been afraid of his abilities, a little scared of what he might do if he lost control of himself. One look at Central Dogma would show exactly what a teenage girl with the proportionate speed, agility, and strength of a spider and a teenage boy with the power to increase his personal gravitational pull could do.

Despite it all, though, they'd been forced to flee while Shinji and the others had been collared. He didn't know where they took Kensuke and the other student, if they were in similar cells or deeper in the bowels of the facility, in Nathaniel Essex' labs. Unable to concentrate, he got up and paced, folding his hands behind his back. The speaker withdrew and he was left in silence to walk the short length of the cell.

The one image in his mind he couldn't shake was Asuka standing between them, placed between Doom and Fuyutsuki and the technicians and the children, and the look when she without hesitation walked to stand at his side, primly standing at attention while the armored tyrant lectured them on their subservience to the will of Doom.

Even with the collar on, Shinji had his training. Steven Strange had been speaking with him in his dreams, grooming him and nurturing his affinity with energy into a talent for the arcane. Doom was as close to Strange's equal as Shinji could imagine, a burning star next to Shinji's sputtering candle. When he tried to draw on himself to form a spell, Doom simply flicked it out of his mind, crushed him utterly with a thought. His mastery of the occult arts was so total, he could form spells purely through mental discipline, not even needing to speak. Where Shinji was sloppy, needing help and direction, Doom was an artist. The fight was over so fast, no one but the two of them saw it happen.

She could have done something. All she had to do was touch him and let him draw on her fire, and _nothing_ could stop him. He ran his fingers down the wall of his prison, curled them into a fist, and feebly struck the smooth metal. He had to do something, he had to get out. The image of Asuka's face floated in his mind again, the way her lips tightened and her eyes went hard when that clanking monstrosity entered the room. She had a cruelty in her he'd never seen before, hidden under layers of confusion and her peculiar, defensive arrogance. He leaned his head on the wall and wondered how he could be so stupid.

Pacing back to the cot, he sat down on it and closed his eyes. The speaker immediately dropped down and started blasting Britney Spears in his ears. He flicked his eyes open in annoyance and stared at it until it slid back up. He was so tired he probably could have slept. He just wanted to rip the damned thing out of the wall and smash it. If he could only use his powers, he could crush it with a gesture, barely a thought. He fell back on the bed.

The speaker dropped down again. He opened his eyes halfway, trying to tune out the music. That wasn't working, either. There had to be something he could do. He realized he needed to use the toilet and almost sat up but froze instead, his eyes lidded. It might work, if he was fast enough. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brows in concentration. The volume increased.

He jumped for it. Pushing from the bed, he darted across the room, put one foot on the toilet, and reached up for the speaker. He slapped both hands on its sides, pushing them together as hard as he could. He grunted as he swung from it his legs dangling in the air. The motor couldn't be strong enough to lift him, too. He heard it grinding.

His body went rigid. He lost control of his muscles as the speaker housing sparked and buzzed. His teeth clicked closed so hard it hurt, and his legs quivered in the air. The speaker itself blew out. When it was over, he lost his grip and fell hard to the floor, stumbling onto the ground. His head hit the floor with a sharp crack and his vision swam.

The ruined speaker drew up into the ceiling. Another, identical one lowered in its place. This time, it was louder.

* * *

><p>Rei's eyes fluttered open and the sickness was on her. She pressed her teeth closed and grimaced, trying desperately not to vomit into the LCL that surrounded her in the extraction cylinder. Half-lidded, her eyes flickered back and forth as the last few days flashed involuntarily by her eyes. The angel attack, Essex' capture of the students, breaking into Nerv. Toji shouting her name as the fire came, flash boiling away the inside of the entry plug, followed by her skin. She struggled in the tube, beating her fists against it, and felt it crack under her knuckles. The fluid drained, and cold air rushed over her. Someone laid a towel over her body, covering her as she curled into the fetal position.<p>

"Is the procedure always this traumatic?"

She looked up and saw a man in a metal mask, towering over her. Doctor Akagi moved beside her. Her shoulders were pulled in and her wings hung around her, jutting through two holes torn in the back of her labcoat. She put an arm around Rei's shoulders and lifted her up, cradling the girl against her chest.

"I don't know. I've never done this before. Ikari handled it."

"I am alive," Rei whispered, drawing the towel around herself.

Shaking, she stood up, leaning on Akagi for support. Doom loomed over them impassively, his dark green cloak swathed around his armor. He turned to examine the clone tank and the spare bodies residing within, floating through chilled LCL with looks of dull anger on their faces, lips drawn back from razor fangs, red eyes wide. Rei turned away from them.

"How much do you remember?" said Akagi.

"I… I was to go dancing."

"Will she be able to pilot?" said Doom.

Akagi gave him the briefest flash of a hard look, then stared at the floor. "Yes… _my Lord._ She should be able to, but Unit One is… difficult."

"Irrelevant," said Doom. "See her to the infirmary and have her ready for a synchronization test in one hour."

The iron giant turned and stomped out of the room, disappearing into the elevator, leaving her alone with Akagi. Rei was able to stand now, and able to feel the cold stone floor sucking the heat out of the soles of her feet. She was hungry, and this close to Akagi, she could smell the older woman's fear and her _blood_, pumping through her veins. Her jugular was so close, she could-

"I almost wish you would," said Akagi.

Rei shuddered. She took a few steps more, and was able to walk on her own. Akagi guided her out of the lab and helped her sit down on an exam table and pulled a robe around her, and then put a cooler marked with a red cross on the table beside her. From inside, she drew a plastic bag full of chilled whole blood and held it out. Rei snatched it from her hand, put the foul tasting plastic in her mouth, and sunk her fangs into it. It was cold and tasted foul and rusty, but it spilled down her throat and over her chin and she fell onto her side, curling up into a ball as she drained it and let the empty bag slap onto the floor.

Akagi shied away from her.

"I am safe," said Rei.

Akagi touched her forehead. "You're cold."

"I am always cold. What is happening?"

"Terrible things," said Akagi. "The Commander is dead. Most of the command staff and the children are locked up in the brig. They have Shinji in solitary confinement. Doom took over Essex's labs. I haven't heard from Katsuragi."

Grunting, Rei sat up. She felt stronger now, more focused. "I am to pilot Unit One."

"Yes. Doom wanted to use the dummy system, but it isn't ready. You'll have to do."

"I am not sure that I can."

"There's only one way to find out."

"I want to see Shinji."

"I don't think that will be possible," Akagi sighed.

Rei wilted. "I see. Is Suzahara here?"

"Who… oh, that boy. No, he fled, along with some of the others. I don't know where he is. You probably don't want to ask," said Akagi, pointedly glancing at the clone tank. "It's best to cooperate."

"I see," said Rei, though her gaze did not rise from the floor.

* * *

><p>She could kill them all, but she waited. It whispers in her head, daring her to give in to her urges, to feed, to pin poor Maya down and… it whispers in her head. Misato clung to the underside of the roof, wreathed in the creature's undulating, fibrous body. It was a simple matter to camouflage herself, to imitate the backdrop so seamless she disappeared into it. She crawled along with the patrol of Latverians, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as she tracked their movement. She was waiting for one of them to give her an opportunity.<p>

At last, one of them peeled off from the rest, shouldering his automatic rifle. Misato crept down the wall, hanging invisible over his head. When he was out of sight of the others, she dropped down behind him and clamped her hand over his mouth, pulled him close, and raised her hand over her head, drawing her fingers into a fist. The symbiote fired a thin streamer of webbing at the corner of the roof overhead, and she drew herself up, carrying the Latverian with her.

She let the symbiote resume its normal color, and willed it to peel back from her face. She ran her tongue over the sharp points of her teeth, left behind even when it pulled back. Her hair, inundated with the fluid mass of the symbiot's body, lifted and coiled behind her head, like serpents on a gorgon. She picked up the Latverian's rifle, looked at it with contempt, and crumbled it in half with one hand before tossing it to the side. A quick shot of webbing pinned his hands to the ground, and she crouched over his chest, dangling her sharp talons over his face.

"Let's talk," she rasped, leaning close.

"What are you?"

"Where is Shinji Ikari?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying to us," she rasped, tracing the sharp edge of her talon down his cheek. "We hate liars."

"I don't know, I swear! I know nothing!"

Sneering with contempt, she touched the tips of her fingers to his throat, letting them dig in just enough for tiny spots of blood to well around them.

"Tell. Us."

"_Misato!"_

She looked over her shoulder.

Hikari. She was perched on the corner of the roof, squatting with her hands between her feet. Misato drew back and mimicked her, crouching over her prey. She flexed her fingers, the talons growing longer, and the symbiote drew up around her face, thin tendrils of it surrounding her eyes and mouth.

"Killing him won't help anybody."

She rounded on the soldier. "It'll make us _feel better."_

"Misato," Hikari snapped, edging closer. "Don't make me hurt you."

"Try us," Misato hissed, "you just want the Shinji for yourself! We're not stupid!"

Hikari put her hands up in a gesture of surrender and stood up. "Look, let's all stay calm here and try to hold off on the violence and the talking about ourselves in the second person plural, okay?"

Misato trembled. "I…" she croaked, "We want answers!"

"I have a family!" the soldier whined.

She closed her hands around his throat. "So did we, before you stole them from us!"

"_Misato!" _Hikari shouted, charging across the roof.

The Suzahara boy got to her first. He body-checked Misato off the pinned Latverian, rolled with her, and landed on top of her. She snarled and clawed furiously at his face, but it had no effect. He just closed his eyes and tightened his grip around her. When she got ahold of his wrists, pulling his arms apart was easy, he was no stronger than an ordinary person. When she was nearly free, he did something, squinting in concentration, and it was like a thousand weight fell on her chest, pinning her to the roof. He was only resting his hand on her stomach.

"Don't move," he said sharply. "I can turn it up."

She nodded.

Hikari squatted beside her. "How did you escape?"

Misato closed her eyes and breathed. She felt the creature retreat, and opened them again, looking up into the night sky. "I don't remember. When the old man surrendered, I tried to get to Shinji, but Doom… sonics, they used sonics on us. It hurt. I can't remember, I was outside and… there was _blood. _Oh God, I think I hurt someone."

Hikari sighed. "What did you see? Do you know where they're being held?"

She shook her head. "I had to flee, the sounds, the _sounds, _they _hurt us_."

Toji looked at Hikari. "She's bonkers."

Hikari gave him a sharp look. "Look, I don't like this, but we need your help. Can you… tone that down a little?"

She closed her eyes. It was a less a command than a negotiation, the creature's fury overwhelming her. It was so angry, so filled with hate, and Hikari, she smelled _wrong_. Misato closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she sat up in her uniform. It was mostly her uniform, at any rate. Her skirt was shorter and her sweater tighter and it bared some of her midriff, and her jacket clung to her sides. The Suzahara boy nervously looked away from her, blushing.

"Have you been working out?" said Hikari.

"Pilates," Misato rasped. She gave Suzahara a little shove as he relented and let her stand up.

"What do we do with this guy?" said Hikari, looking down at the Latverian.

"Kill him," said Misato.

"No!" said Suzahara, stepping between them. "You can't do that, he-"

"I'm not crazy," said Misato, fixing her gaze on him. "He's the enemy, he's an enemy soldier. This isn't a comic book, kid. He'd kill you if he could, if he got the chance. He might have put a gun to the head of someone you care about on his last shift. You should have let me finish him off."

"Is that you talking, or that thing?" said Hikari.

Misato glared at her. The symbiote squirmed against her skin, but with a deep breath she held it in check. "Fine, we'll let him live. We should leave. Quickly."

Suzahara put his arm around Hikari's neck as she jumped off the roof and swung from a web line. Misato followed, letting the symbiote relax into a more natural state, clinging to her skin, but she kept her face exposed. Hikari dropped down into an alleyway behind a set of dumpsters and lowered the boy to the ground Misato followed, landing in a crouch.

"What are you planning?"

"Nothing yet," said Hikari. "We need to break in, get past Doom, and get everybody out."

"Impossible," Misato snapped, standing.

"We already did it once."

"Essex was an idiot," said Misato. "Doom is _Doom."_

"I though you were supposed to be smart and stuff," said Suzahara, "aren't you in charge of all the battles and everything? You could help us come up with a plan."

Misato ran her fingers through her hair. Suzahara stared at her chest intently, until Hikari elbowed him.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "That thing is _tight."_

Misato narrowed her eyes at him, and shook her head.

"Boys," said Hikari.

Misato snorted.

"Well _excuse me_," said Suzahara.

"There must be something they wouldn't think of," said Hikari, pacing. "Some kind of access they'd miss when they secure the base, a way for us to sneak back in."

"We could free the prisoners in Essex's labs," said Misato. "They're dangerous enough that it would provide us with a diversion."

Hikari sighed, leaning on the brick wall. "What about the dinosaurs from that cargo ship? Are they still down there?"

"Probably," said Misato. "The T-Rex is still alive."

Hikari shuddered. "Great, so we get in, and we create a diversion."

"Who else is with us?"

Hikari looked at Misato, and at Suzahara.

"This is it?" said Misato. "Really?"

"Do you have any better ideas?"

She paced. "There might be someone else."

* * *

><p>"I think this is a bad idea," said Toji.<p>

"You think everything is a bad idea," said Hikari.

Misato looked over her shoulder at them, angrily. Toji winced. Hikari bit her lip and glared back, defiant. The three of them crept along the broad drive up the curving hill towards the Stark estate, overlooking the city. Misato raised her hand, but Toji bumped into Hikari before he noticed. The alien thing on Misato was very tight, on her legs and her chest and her lower back and that whole lower back butt type area, and-

Hikari smacked the side of his head. "Focus."

"Right," said Toji.

"Wait here," said Misato.

She took a few steps, and she turned invisible, just like that. The alien moved around her, wrapping around her face, and like a chameleon it shifted colors until it blended in with the scenery, and then the camouflage improved, until she was almost impossible to see. Toji could make out an outline if he squinted, until she moved far enough off, and her movements could have been a breeze or a bird in the bushes. Toji sat down near the gate, and Hikari joined him. She leaned her head back on the low stone wall and closed her eyes.

"I hope my sister is okay," said Toji.

"Same here," said Hikari. "I'm afraid if we call them…"

"It'll be traced or something," said Toji.

"Or put them in danger. We're on our own."

They were quiet for a while.

"Do you think there's any way Rei could have lived?" said Hikari.

"I don't know. She's tough. I saw her get hurt before, but… her Eva _exploded._"

"I'm sorry," said Hikari.

"It didn't have anything to do with you."

"I just…"

Toji grasped desperately for something to change the subject about. "What are you going to do about Shinji?"

"What about him?" Hikari snapped, leaning on her knees.

"Well, um," said Toji, "You were going out and stuff…"

"I ruined that with my big mouth," said Hikari. "My sister didn't like him, and I have a duty to my family."

"You didn't seem so hot on that when she wanted you to stay out of the fight."

Hikari shrugged. "That's different."

"Why?"

She sighed. "I don't _know. _Okay? It just is."

Misato dropped down into a crouch beside them. Toji nearly jumped out of his skin, grabbing Hikari for support. She pushed him off and stood up, and he followed. Misato peered around the corner, up at the house.

"Well?" said Hikari.

"There's no one here."

Hikari slumped and put her hand on her face. "That's just great. Now what do we do?"

"We might be able to sneak in."

Toji stood up, but Misato pushed him back down, resting her hand on his shoulder. "Not you. You're our big gun. You stay out here and watch our backs."

"I am?" said Toji, glancing at Hikari. "You're not going to eat her, are you?"

"No," Misato said drolly. "Come on, kid."

Toji watched them leave. He watched Misato leave, in particular. He stood up and wandered back down along the wide drive a bit, keeping to the hedges. He had a good view of the city from here. He put his foot on a rock and leaned forward, staring out into the collection of bright lights. It was full dark now, and Tokyo-3 was a pulsing dance of light bulbs and headlamps, moving with a steady, easy regularity. It would be hard to see that there was anything amiss.

He heard something coming and ducked behind a bush. A VTOL, one of the big, awkward flyers that Nerv used, was coming in, almost like it was limping. He could hear the engine sputtering, and when he looked closer, he realized there was some kind of robot holding it up, shouldering under the fuselage. It came in low and slow towards the estate and came down with a crunch right on the front yard, the landing gear folding under it. A moment later, the front hatch ground upwards, pushed from the inside. Limping, another robot stepped down out of it. He thought it was a robot, anyway.

It was a girl, he realized, carrying a helmet under her arm. He couldn't tell what she looked like under the armor -it looked rather masculine, actually- but she was pretty, walking in that funny way people do when they're missing their glasses, with long brown hair bound up behind her head. Following her was some guy in a halloween costume, a leather tunic and cape with some kind of big purse hanging around his neck. Toji didn't like the look of him, with his scruffy beard and ponytail. He had some kind of fright mask in one hand.

The robots, or maybe they were suits, too, steadied the downed aircraft and stepped away from it, following them towards the house. Toji stepped out, seizing up with panic. They'd find Hikari and Misato inside. He had to figure out some way to warn them. He scratched his head, looking at the big flyer. Maybe the landing got their attention, but he couldn't be sure. He started running up towards the house, panting. Why couldn't he have super speed, or strength? What the hell good did being able to protect himself do?

He made it to the gate, the open space in the rock wall, and ran through it. Nothing happened, so he kept on up the path. The house was big, low and modern, and had an even better view of Tokyo-3 than the driveway. Toji ran right up to the front door. The others must have gone inside some other way. It didn't have a knob, per se- there was some kind of reader or sensor next to the door, and he wasn't going to mess with that. He walked around the side, looking for a window.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Somewhere, he heard Hikari scream. He ran for the wall full tilt, them stumbled.

Something reached down out of the sky to the East. A beam of light so bright it lit the night sky sliced through the blue, and carved out a purple trail in his vision. He stumbled backwards and landed on his rear end, staring. He heard a commotion in the house and the door opened. The lady in the armor suit, the guy in the costume, Misato and Hikari all tumbled out. Hikari was grabbing her head like someone had punched her, and there was a fine trickle of blood from one of her nostrils. Toji grabbed her and daubed it away with the hem of his shirt.

She shook her head. "I'm okay. I've never felt anything like that before."

"What was it?"

"Spider-Sense," Misato hissed.

"I guess," said Hikari.

"Who the hell-" the lady in the armor started.

The thunder cut her off. It wasn't so much thunder as a blast of wind, a rolling flush of hot air that rolled over them. Toji put his hand on Hikari and the guy in the costume and used his power, rooting them to the spot. The sound drowned out everything, drowned out his own heartbeat, drowned out thought. Misato screamed and her suit-monster-thing went crazy, flopping around in every direction, and Toji let the others go and grabbed her to hold her up. Some dull part of his mind realized that it was dripping off her and she was half naked, but it was crushed down by the raw terror of what he saw on the horizon.

Somewhere in the east, far distant, a mushroom cloud was rising.

* * *

><p>"Hurts," Misato groaned, "Hurts us,"<p>

She slumped against Toji. The thunderclap must have hurt her _friend_, it was halfway off of her. Hikari rushed to her side, slipped her arms under Misato's shoulders and legs, and lifted her up. The guy in the leather cape gave her a weird look, and the Stark woman just blinked, rapidly adjusting. She stomped over to Hikari's side.

"I know her."

"Misato," said leather-cape-man.

"Who are you?" said Hikari.

"Kaji Ryoji," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Everybody inside," said Stark, nudging Hikari's shoulder with her big metal glove.

Hikari didn't need to be told twice. She rushed inside and spread Misato out on the couch. The thing was alive, and already pulling itself together around her. Hikari blinked. There was still an aftermark, a kind of purple scar, on her vision where she'd been looking out the window when whatever that thing was came down.

Stark walked out into the middle of the room. "Jarvis, bring everything up and tell me what the hell just happened."

A cheerful, English-accented voice replied, "At once, Miss Mari."

"Is the back door I installed at Nerv still active?"

"Indeed."

"Get me access, I want to know what's going on down there."

"I'll tell you what's going on," Hikari said, rounding on her. "Doom took over the city, put all of my friends in jail. The ones that are alive, anyway."

Kaji and Stark looked at each other.

"This is _bad_," said Kaji. "Look, there's the international fraternity of criminals, and then there's guys like Doom, or the Red Skull. He's out of my weight class."

"Jarvis, what do you have for me?"

"A great deal of information," said Jarvis. "Presently I am only able to operate at thirty-five percent capacity. A wide frequency jamming signal is disrupting my connection to the mainframe under the mansion in California."

"What kind of interference?" said Mari. "Where's it coming from?"

"Origin unknown, but unlikely to be terrestrial in origin."

"Some kind of satellite?"

"Unknown, but the projected point of origin is well outside even the highest standard orbits. My preliminary calculations indicate that it is somewhere between the Earth and lunar orbit, directly over the Pacific Ocean."

"Great," said Mari. "What the hell was that light in the sky?"

"I have not yet determined its precise origin," said Jarvis. "All communications, including civilian, military, and covert Nerv frequencies, originating from Beijing and the surrounding area have been cut off."

"God," Kaji gasped. "Was it a bomb?"

"Unable to determine. Insufficient data."

Stark paced the room. "Let's get down into the basement. I need to change into a heavier suit."

Groggily, Misato managed to stand up. She fixed her gaze on Mari. "Stark."

"Katsuragi. Look, you and me can work this out later… what the hell are you wearing, anyway?"

"We are Venom now," said Misato.

Kaji gave her a startled look, and edged away. "What?"

"You heard us. Me. Damn it."

A section of the floor lowered, smoothly hissing apart into a broad staircase. Stark lead the way, followed by the others. Hikari brought up the rear, edging close to Misato. She eyed Kaji warily. For some reason Hikari would probably never fathom, her suit or whatever it was rearranged itself. It hung loose from her legs, hanging down around her legs in a loose skirt that was slashed high, almost to her hip, and it withdrew from her shoulders. It looked like a black evening dress, with that weird white spider sigil twisting diagonally across her chest. Kaji looked over his shoulder at her and she turned her nose up at him, almost childishly.

"Hey," Hikari whispered, "What's with the evening gown?"

Misato looked down, and the suit quickly drew back up into its normal shape.

Once they arrived in the basement, Stark stepped up into a sort of ring, and mechanical arms reached for her, unclamping the metal plates that made up her suit and drawing them away from her. In a few moments, she was stripped down to a tight black undersuit. Hikari spotted Toji staring at her hips and elbowed him.

"Jarvis? Have anything for me yet?"

"International communications chatter does not indicate the origin of the explosion in China," said Jarvis. "Please wait."

"What?"

"New data available. Berlin, Doomstadt, Beijing, Las Vegas and New Washington have all been completely destroyed."

Stark stumbled, leaning on a work table. "What?"

"Chatter indicates that the working theory is meteor strikes."

"Like hell," said Misato, "That wasn't a meteor strike, that was some kind of laser or weapon."

"Jarvis," said Mari, "Get me Nick Fury, General Rhodes, anybody that will pick up."

"Connecting."

Stark paced the room. Hikari rubbed at her temples. The buzzing was coming back, what Misato had called the spider-sense.

"We can't stay here," said Hikari.

The adults ignored her. "They wiped out all the capitals. Why would they knock them all out? It makes no sense…" said Kaji.

"Millions of people," said Mari.

Misato cleared her throat. "If Hikari says we're in danger, we're in danger. Trust us. Me. Damn it."

Stark gave her a sharp look, then looked at Hikari. "Okay. Jarvis, what do you have for me?"

"Unable to process request. All communications jammed."

Stark took a deep breath.

"Okay. Load up every file you've got into the Mark X's computers and suit me up. Set everything to fry ten minutes after we're gone, and blow the house. I don't want Doom getting his hands on any of my father's tech."

"I have a final piece of relevant data," said Jarvis. "The origin of the orbital strikes is the same as the origin of the jamming signal. Before communications were cut off entirely, I intercepted a communique from Cheyenne Mountain. Before Norad was destroyed, the strategic radar grid detected large numbers of small objects entering the atmosphere."

Stark swallowed hard. "Meteors?"

"Unlikely. They were slowing down."

* * *

><p><em>To be concluded in...<em>

* * *

><p>Yes, this update and the first section of <em>Crisis<em> Chapter 3 are identical. Several people asked me to do this with the stories intertwined with the _Crisis_ so they could catch when it updates.

_Valkyrie _is, in my opinion, one of my more amateurish works, and I really should have written the whole thing out for a full first draft before I started releasing it. Discovery writing doesn't really work with a tale of this magnitude. Maybe, if our brave heroes are victorious in the _Crisis_, there will be a renewal, a rebirth, and the strange world of _Valkyrie_ will be born anew, in a better, more coherently plotted and written format.


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